Lynne Featherstone

Holocaust Memorial event at Muswell Hill Synagogue with children from Gladesmore School meeting Rudi Openheimer – a Holocaust survivor. I’ve been to many events to listen to a survivor tell their tale over the years. And it never fails to bring home the awful, unbearable truths of man’s inhumanity.

This is a phenomenal tradition – the giving of living histories to our children. And the children listened and I have no doubt they understood in a way that they probably never understood before. For some of them, most, they had never been into a synagogue before.

In the introduction, which I thought very clever, those in the audience were asked to raise their hands if they were Jewish. About ten people raised their hands. They were then asked if they could have told these people were Jews if they had seen them walking down the street. They all shook their hands.

Then it was explained that in a European, civilised country just like England – a group of people (the Nazis) decided that this group would be killed. There was no hot-blooded fighting – only cold blooded systematic extermination.

That is when Rudi Openheimer took up the tale. Well done to Muswell Hill Synagogue and all who helped put this together. It is unforgettable. And on Sunday is Holocaust Memorial Day itself.