Sandwell’s annual Holocaust Memorial Service will take place on Sunday (25 January). Everyone is welcome to attend.
The service will be held from 11am to 12 noon, at Memorial Gardens, Highfields House, High Street, West Bromwich, B70 8RJ. Please arrive from 10.30am.
Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. We will commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions more murdered under Nazi persecution. We also learn and commemorate where persecution led in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Kindly returning for Sandwell’s commemorative service is Mindu Hornick MBE (awarded in services to Holocaust education). As guest speaker, she will share her inspiring yet heart-breaking journey as a Jewish, Auschwitz Holocaust survivor.
During the Second World War, Mindu’s father had been drafted into a forced labour battalion and, as the war continued, the rest of the family was sent to a ghetto. Then, Mindu was sent on a cattle truck bound for Auschwitz with her mother, older sister and two younger brothers. She and her sister survived as, after several months, they were selected for slave labour and sent to work in an ammunitions factory near Hamburg, but she never saw her father, mother or brothers again.
In 1948, three years after the war ended, provisions were made for Mindu to travel from Czechoslovakia to England and live with relatives in Birmingham. After meeting her husband, her life changed for the better. They started a happy family and built a successful electrical store business together. Now in her mid-90s, Mindu continues to create a positive legacy by sharing her experiences of extreme prejudice and discrimination to educate others and inspire hope for a more promising future.
This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day Trust theme is “Bridging Generations”, calling on us to honour the past while positively shaping the future. In line with the theme, the service will include the reading of another Holocaust survivor’s story, shared at their request. The theme is a reminder of our shared responsibility to listen to the stories of survivors and carry those lessons forward. By doing so, the voices of the past continue to inspire and connect to voices of the future, building a bridge between history and the present.
The Mayor of Sandwell, Councillor Steve Melia, said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is a time for reflection, remembrance and learning. By hearing directly from survivors and those who help carry their stories forward, we honour the victims and reaffirm our commitment to building a more compassionate and inclusive society.”
For more information visit Sandwell’s Holocaust Memorial Service webpage or visit the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website for more information about Holocaust Memorial Day.