Poignant holocaust memorial service held at Lowestoft rail station

Close to the spot where hundreds of young Jewish refugees had arrived in 1938, the people of Lowestoft gathered during a special ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

Ormiston Denes Academy students speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Day event at Lowestoft rail station. (Image: Mick Howes)

A service of remembrance was held inside The Parcels Office at Lowestoft Railway Station on Friday (January 27).

The event, organised by Lowestoft Town Council, reflected upon the town's role in the 'kindertransport' program, while remembering millions of people who died in the Holocaust, and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

With 'Ordinary People' the theme for this year's civic service, wreaths were laid by mayor of Lowestoft Alan Green and representatives of Waveney Youth Council.

Mayor of Lowestoft Alan Green at the Holocaust Memorial Day event (Image: Mick Howes)

Addressing those present, the mayor of Lowestoft, Mr Green, said: "The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day this year is Ordinary People.

Mayor of Lowestoft Alan Green (Image: Mick Howes)

"It is a chance for us to reflect on those ordinary people, to learn from the past and look to a better future for everyone."

Wreaths laid (Image: Mick Howes)

Reflecting on December 1938 when people in Lowestoft welcomed 529 children as they arrived at the railway station and escaped persecution prior to the outbreak of the Second World War – as part of what is now known as Kindertransport - the initiative was an organised rescue effort.

Mayor of Lowestoft Alan Green with Benjamin Britten High School head boy and head girl Kitson Smithers and Georgia Boyd (Image: Mick Howes)

With reflective words from Lowestoft town councillors Sonia Barker, Wendy Brooks and Andy Pearce, Mrs Barker recalled how she had invited Holocaust survivor Mr Zwirneck to speak to students in Lowestoft when she was a history teacher.

Lowestoft town councillor Andy Pearce. (Image: Mick Howes)

Lowestoft town councillor Wendy Brooks (Image: Mick Howes)

Recalling how "it was a privilege to listen to him", Mrs Barker said he was "an ordinary man who had survived to tell of an extraordinary experience."

Lowestoft town councillor Sonia Barker (Image: Mick Howes)

'Very moving stories'

The service featured a poignant address by Minister, Daniel Rosenthal of the Norwich Synagogue.

Daniel Rosenthal Minister Norwich Synagogue (Image: Mick Howes)

It also included readings and poems by the head girl and head boy from Benjamin Britten Music Academy - Georgia Boyd and Kitson Smithers - and high school pupils from Ormiston Denes Academy in Lowestoft, with an extract read from the memoirs of Holocaust survivor Esther Rosenfeld Starobin.

The head girl and head boy from Benjamin Britten Music Academy - Georgia Boyd and Kitson Smithers - speak at the event. (Image: Mick Howes)

A minute’s silence was led by Minister, Daniel Rosenthal followed by prayers - including the memorial prayer in both Hebrew and English.

Waveney MP Peter Aldous thanked everyone for attending and listening to "very moving stories", before the wreaths were laid by the Kindertransport plaque at the station.

Waveney MP Peter Aldous (Image: Mick Howes)

The event at Greater Anglia's Lowestoft station was held inside The Parcels Office with kind permission from the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and the Lowestoft Central Project.

New memorial bench

With Lowestoft Town Council organising commemoration events for the town each year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and to remember the lives lost and affected by genocides around the world, a second event saw a new Holocaust Memorial Bench unveiled in Kensington Gardens on Friday afternoon.

The new Holocaust memorial bench (Image: Mick Howes)

In front of a gathering of councillors and locals, the Mayor of Lowestoft, Alan Green, welcomed everyone and presented the new commemorative lectern sited in the Holocaust garden at Kensington Gardens.

The mayor of Lowestoft, Alan Green at the unveiling of the new memorial bench (Image: Mick Howes)

Containing the concentration camp identification badges, the mayor said that the intention is to plant the garden with "flowers representing the colour, and in the shape of some of the badges" in the Spring.

The ceremony to unveil the new lectern and memorial bench (Image: Mick Howes)

Ahead of this, pupils from St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School in Lowestoft placed daffodils that they had created and symbolically planted around the memorial tree.

The memorial garden (Image: Mick Howes)

Two pupils then read a poem.

Two pupils read a poem (Image: Mick Howes)

The Mayor then formally presented the new holocaust memorial bench, with white dove motifs, which is sited close to the memorial garden.

The new Holocaust memorial bench (Image: Mick Howes)

A town council spokesman said: "When in flower, the colours within the planting bed symbolise the identification badges given to those persecuted during the Holocaust in concentration camps.

"These were kindly planted by the Friends of Kensington Gardens."

The new lectern (Image: Mick Howes)

The memorial bench includes the quote 'Peace is a gift to each other' - which comes from the Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.

The engraving on the memorial bench. (Image: Mick Howes)