Lives honoured and horrors of Holocaust recalled during commemoration
A moving commemoration was held to honour the lives and memories of all those have died as the result of genocide.
The annual Dudley Holocaust Commemoration helped to mark 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and also remembered the six million Jews killed under Nazi persecution.
The event, which was held online due to the pandemic, was attended by MPs and councillors from across the region, as well as more than 200 guests and students from Dudley College, which hosted the memorial.
The event was opened by Lord Ian Austin, of Dudley, who spoke about how the events of nearly 80 years ago must never be forgotten, before Dudley College Student Union president Helen Lawley read a poem.
She was then followed by Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassador James Hibberd, who spoke about his trip to Auschwitz, before a moving keynote speech by holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg BEM.
He spoke about how he, his mother and his brother Herman were deported to the Riga Ghetto, in Latvia, in 1941, and of his life in different concentration camps. He also touched on how people would be randomly taken away and executed.
Mr Goldberg said while his mother escaped execution, his brother was taken away and never seen again.
It was concluded by a vote of thanks from the Bishop of Dudley, Martin Gorick. and closing remarks from the Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands John Crabtree OBE, who said we should continue to learn from the lessons of the holocaust.
Mr Austin said it was really important to keep running the event each year.
He said: “It was an incredibly moving event and I am extremely grateful to Manfred for taking the time to speak to us.
“It’s an opportunity for our community to honour the memories of all those who died and oppose the ugly voices or racism and prejudice.”
