Following the borough of Barnet’s annual commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday, Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has paid tribute to all the survivors who speak out bravely to ensure that this atrocity is never forgotten.
Ms Villiers has been attending the Barnet commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day for many years. This year’s event took place in the Ricketts Quadrangle of Middlesex University, after last year’s commemoration could only happen virtually.
The gathering heard music from the London Cantorial Singers, the Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue choir, the Barnet Band and students from the Yehudi Menuhin music school.
A speech was given by 96 year old Kurt Marx who came to England in the Kinder Transport.
Natalie Cumming also spoke to tell the story of her aunt Rosa Levinsky. Rosa was given a violin by her father which he had played during the family’s escape from brutal pogroms in Russia. They settled in Leeds but Rosa went to work in Berlin when offered a prestigious role with an orchestra there. She was arrested on Kristallnacht and was subjected to appalling treatment first in a labour camp in Mauthausen, then in Auschwitz and finally in Bergen Belson.
She survived to give evidence at the Nuremburg war crimes trials and to tell her story to her niece, Natalie. But she died soon after returning to her home in Leeds having contracted TB in the camps. She kept her violin with her throughout her ordeal, forced to play in an orchestra in Auschwitz to try to provide false reassurance to people arriving there.
Speaking after the event, Theresa Villiers said: “The Holocaust involved suffering at an unimaginable level. It is impossible to comprehend the scale of the horror inflicted on innocent people. It is right that we gather together every year as a borough to remember those who lost their lives to this most appalling of crimes.”
“With fewer and few eye-witnesses left, it is always a great honour for me to hear from survivors. I pay tribute to them all, including Kurt Marx and Mrs Cumming’s aunt, Rosa Levinsky.”
“It must have taken incredible fortitude and resilience to survive. We owe these people an immense debt of gratitude for their willingness to tell their stories, so that future generations know what happened and do everything they can to prevent it ever happening again."
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place every year on 27th January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp.
