Holocaust Memorial Day marked at White Rock

Dean of Guernsey the Very Rev. Tim Barker led a short ceremony during which wreaths were laid at the memorials of the three Jewish women who lived in Guernsey during the Occupation and died at Auschwitz, the Guernsey Eight – a group of islanders who died after being deported in the Second World War – and the foreign labour forces.

Mr Barker said it was a day for everyone to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the millions of people killed in Nazi persecution and in the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, and the Yazidi people.

‘This day is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp,’ he said.

‘This 80th anniversary of the liberation of that camp, which will be remembered across the world, has a special significance.

‘On Holocaust Memorial Day, we have the opportunity as an island community to honour the victims and survivors of these regimes of hatred and challenge ourselves to use their experience to inform our lives today.

‘Today is a time when we seek to learn from the lessons of the past and to recognise that genocide does not just take place in a war zone.

'It may be the conclusion of a process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not rejected or prevented.’

Bailiff Sir Richard McMahon and Chief Minister Lyndon Trott were among those laying wreaths at the event, which was also attended by other deputies and the former Bailiff Sir Richard Collas.

Darren Vogel, a member of Guernsey’s Jewish community, said that it was important to remember the events that occurred across Europe every year, but that this year was especially poignant.

‘This being the 80th anniversary, and with King Charles being one of many visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau today, although we feel the events occurred a lifetime ago, they are still very relevant,’ Mr Vogel said.

A service was held at Town Church afterwards, which included contributions from students of the Guernsey Music Service and The Guernsey Institute, and featured reflections on the significance of Holocaust Memorial Day.

ALDERNEY REMEMBERS WAR’S SLAVE LABOURERS

Alderney residents also gathered to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The annual event was held at the Hammond Memorial. Its exposed location meant the public were standing in high winds, but still about 50 people turned out.

The service was conducted by St Anne’s parish priest the Rev. Samantha Martel, with members of Alderney Churches Together. Extracts from a diary by a young Czech girl imprisoned in Birkenau camp were read, as well as those of a Polish slave worker who was brought to Alderney to build the fortifications and a Hungarian jew who survived the Auschwitz camp.

States of Alderney vice-president Steve Roberts laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Alderney to remember the slave workers who died during the five years of Nazi occupation.

In a short speech he thanked everyone for turning out and said it was important to remember all the slaves ‘because not remembering is almost like destroying them in history for a second time’.

The Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review was published last year, and estimated that between 641 and 1,027 slaves were likely to have died in Alderney during the war, with nearly 100 more estimated to have died in transit.

In total it was thought there were at least between 7,608 and 7,812 prisoners sent to Alderney during the war.