Gillian und ich nahmen gestern an der zentralen Veranstaltung des National Holocaust Memorial Day teil. Hier ein kurzer Bericht:
LIVERPOOL’S Capital of Culture events took a poignant turn yesterday as the city marked National Holocaust Memorial Day with a cast of speakers ranging from refugees of genocide to the Prime Minister, the Chief Rabbi and Archbishop of Canterbury.
A special two-hour event took place inside and outside the Philharmonic Hall involving more than 200 local performers, including a homecoming for Liverpool-born Hollywood actor Jason Isaacs.
In front of an audience comprising Merseyside Police Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe; the Right Rev Bishop James Jones; Julia Baird, sister of John Lennon; Ron Prosor, ambassador of the State of Israel, city council leader Cllr Warren Bradley; Lord Mayor of Liverpool Cllr Paul Clark, and members of the Jewish community, the performance embodied the themes of this year’s memorial day: Remember, Reflect, React.
In the first section of the performance, Isaacs and Eithne Brown read letters as the parents of Liverpool resident Kay Fyne – also on stage, who recalled her memories of coming to Britain on the Kindertransport as a child never to see her parents again.
The Royal Liverpool Philhar-monic Orchestra played music from composers who were themselves victims of the Holocaust, including Hans Gal and Hans Krasa.
Rev Leslie Hardman, the Jewish chaplain who participated in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and led the first Jewish services there, spoke of his experiences conducting the burials of more than 50,000 victims there.