Two events, one in Walpole Park and another in Perceval House will be taking place in Ealing to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2024 and its theme The Fragility of Freedom on 26 January 2024.
The Ealing events come a day before 27 January which marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Both events will be led by The Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Hitesh Tailor with the first one starting at 9.15am and going on until 9:45am at Walpole Park.
At Walpole Park the council will be holding a service to mark the memorial stone laid to commemorate the rededication of the 6 Holocaust Memorial trees following their relocation from Uxbridge Road.
As well as the Mayor of Ealing, others attending include Rabbi Hershi Vogel of Ealing Synagogue, deputy leader of Ealing Council Councillor Deirdre Costigan, Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, past mayor Councillor Munir Ahmed and David Austin, HMD trustee.
The stone’s inscription reads:
“These trees were planted to remember the six million Jews and millions of others murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.”
Deuteronomy ch 20 v. 19
כי האדם עץ השדה (Kie HaAdam Etz Hasadeh)
“Is the tree of the field a man”
This stone was laid to commemorate the rededication of the six Holocaust Memorial trees on 27 January 2022 following their relocation from Uxbridge Road.
The rededication was led by the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Munir Ahmed.
Following the rededication at Walpole Park, the second event will take place at The Atrium in Perceval House, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL from 10.45am with an 11am start.
The Mayor will be joined again by Rabbi Vogel, Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, Councillor Deirdre Costigan as well as the Reverend Dean Ayres, Reverend Joseph Fernandes, the rector of Acton, representatives of the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade. Students from Elthorne Park High School, Brentside High School, Ellen Wilkinson High School, Northolt High School and Drayton Manor High School will also be taking part,
Quest speaker will be Jeanette Marx who will tell her mother’s Holocaust story.
Councillor Peter Mason, leader of Ealing Council said: “Freedom is a universal principle. It is a basic expectation and condition for a free and equal society. In every incidence of genocide however, those who are persecuted have had their freedom restricted and removed. The freedoms of others around them to prevent challenge to these actions are also restricted, demonstrating how fragile freedom is.”
Councillor Mason added: “But there are those who choose to risk their own freedom to help others, to stand up to persecution and to preserve others’ freedom. Today many people take freedoms for granted, but Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity to reflect on how these freedoms need to be valued, and on how many people around the world face restrictions to their freedoms to live, worship, work and love freely.”
