In Pictures: Community in Warwick gathers for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024

The community in Warwick gathered to mark Holocaust Memorial Day last Friday (January 26) with poetry, prayers and readings, and school projects.

More than 100 people attended the event led by The Mayor of Warwick Cllr Oliver Jacques and Rev Jonathan Hearn from St Paul’s Church.

It was also attended by Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western, who read the poem ‘The Butterfly’, written by Pavel Friedmann in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia before he was transported to Auschwitz.

The poem was found on a scrap of paper after the liberation.

At the event, King’s High pupil Henrietta Jeffries read her poem addressing this year’s theme ‘The Fragility of Freedom’.

There were more readings including from Bea Baxter and Sam Warnock from Myton School, and Ryan Taylor from Warwick School.

Aylesford School pupils Lucy Bicknell and Chloe Wan spoke about their trip to Auschwitz in Poland as part of the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz Project’ sponsored by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Other local schools involved in projects about the Holocaust were Coten End, Budbrooke and Evergreen schools.

After the Mayor of Warwick had laid a wreath, the ceremony concluded with the Memorial Prayer for the Victims of the Shoah, read by Clara Gutierrez from the Birmingham Progressive Synagogue.

Organiser, David Sternberg said: “We are proud that this annual Warwick event has continuing strong support from schools.

"It is important that we talk to the younger generations about all the genocides of the past, to ensure that we remain vigilant against prejudice and cruelty, and pledge ourselves to be respectful and kind to others.”