UK National Ceremony

Image: Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – copyright HMDT/Sam Churchill

The UK National Ceremony to mark Holocaust Memorial Day took place at Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster, London and was hosted by broadcaster and BBC journalist Clive Myrie. The welcome speech was delivered by Sir Sajid Javid, Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis KBE; Rabbi Daniel Walker, Rabbi of Heaton Park Synagogue; The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE PC, The Lord Bishop of London, Archbishop-elect; and actors Matt Lucas, Louisa Clein and Leonie Elliott also contributed to the ceremony.

The Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon David Lammy MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon Priti Patel, and Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon James Cleverly, were also among the audience.

During the ceremony, guests heard testimony from three Holocaust survivors:

• Agnes Kaposi MBE was born in October 1932 in Debrecen, Hungary, and survived the Holocaust. In 1944, she and her family were forced into a ghetto and deported to labour camps in Austria, where she worked as a child. Nineteen members of her extended family were murdered by the Nazis. After liberation in 1945, she returned to Hungary and later settled in the UK, where she became an engineer. She has dedicated many years to Holocaust education.
• Peter Lantos BEM was born in Makó, Hungary, in 1939. At just five years old, in 1944, he and his parents were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. His father was murdered there but Peter and his mother survived and were liberated by the US Army. In October 1968, Peter moved to London, where he began a medical career spanning more than 30 years.
• Henny Franks was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1923. In 1939 Henny and her sister escaped to England on the Kindertransport. Her parents fled to Belgium and then to France, where her father was arrested, deported to Sobibor concentration camp and murdered. Henny served in the British Army Auxiliary forces, driving trucks during the war.

In a powerful moment of hope and unity, Holocaust survivors lit candles alongside survivors from Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, and other members of the second and third generations.

Speaking about the ceremony, Olivia Marks-Woldman, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said:

“Holocaust Memorial Day brings communities together from across the UK in collective remembrance and reflection. Prejudice still continues today within our communities and around the world, and this national day is an important reminder of where it can lead. As we grow more distant in time from the Holocaust, and we are able to hear first-hand the histories of fewer and fewer survivors, the responsibility to remember becomes more important than ever. This year’s theme, Bridging Generations, highlights the crucial role of younger generations in remembering the past to protect the future.”