Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides.
Usually, on Holocaust Memorial Day, there is a ceremony at the Milton Keynes Rose to honour survivors of the regimes.
This year it will not be possible to hold a Holocaust Memorial event, as usual, because of COVID-19 restrictions, but a short talk by Paul Salver, formerly a teacher at Sir Herbert Leon Academy, some words from the Mayor of MK Cllr Andrew Geary and a poem for the occasion by the city's poet laureate Mark Niel, will be posted on the website www.miltonkeynesrose.org.uk to mark the date.
This year's theme is 'Be the light in the darkness'. Mark Neil's poem reads:
When young, I knew an old lady
who kept an empty jar on each stair
and would never tell me why,
Teasing that mystery and magic
would soon make themselves known.
One winter, we called in
On a bitter whip-crack cold night
checking she had food and heat
to see a flickering stairway of light.
Candles glowing cheery hellos
protected from draughts in clear cocoons,
throwing shadows, heat climbing the stairs for later.
These vessels magicked from superheated sand
Find a myriad afterlifes in kitchens, workshops,
become banks for people’s little treasures.
This lady kept light in hers,
Making her stairway ethereal, supernatural.
She said nothing but smiled when I understood.
Jars can lead many lives,
do angel's work, carry light,
remembrance, helping keep safe
things so easily lost, like hope, or
the lit flame of truth and testimony
that no amount of darkness can ever extinguish.
2021’s theme ‘Be the Light in the Darkness’, is a quotation from Holocaust survivor, Gena Turgel a great friend of Milton Keynes where she visited the Sir Herbert Leon Academy several times to talk about her experiences in Nazi concentration camps. In her memoirs, Gena says: “We will continue to do our bit for as long as we can, secure in the knowledge that others will continue to light a candle long after us.”
READ MORE: Milton Keynes Rose to host virtual event for Holocaust Memorial Day 2021
