Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 was commemorated by children in Shropshire
Two cherry tree ceremonies were held in Shropshire last week, the week of Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 (Thursday 27 January), involving children from Mereside Primary School, Sheriffhales Primary School, members of faith communities, and local Shropshire Councillors.
At the first ceremony, on Tuesday 25 January, Tony Parsons, a local Shropshire councillor for Bayston Hill, Column and Sutton, helped the children to measure the first Holocaust Memorial Day cherry tree, planted in 2015; and Rosemary Dartnall, a local Shropshire Councillor for the same division, spoke with the children about what the Day meant to her. Their tree is now three metres high, with lots of buds.
Mereside Primary School pupils at the front are, from left: Eva Edwards,
Izzy Jones, Daniel Hill, Bobby McKinnon.
At the second ceremony, held on Holocaust Memorial Day – Thursday 27 January, Kevin Turley, local Shropshire Councillor for Shifnal North, helped to plant the 15th tree in what is now a cherry tree orchard of remembrance growing across Shropshire. Like the first, it is a Black Oliver flowering cherry tree. A commemorative stone has also been placed with it.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 – group picture of the planting at Sheriffhales Primary School
At both remembrance ceremonies the children shared prayers and lit a special three-wick candle to signify the world faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. At both schools they thought about the children who escaped the Holocaust by coming to England on the Kindertransport trains, and how this linked in with the theme for the year, “One Day”.
Mereside children wrote letters from their imaginary selves back to the parents they were leaving behind, which Rosemary Darnall described as very moving and as showing a great understanding of the plight of children escaping the direct effects of the Holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 – pupil Faith Adams, and faith leaders
The children representing the school were Eva Edwards, Izzy Jones, Daniel Hill and Bobby McKinnon. They also read out a special prayer they had composed between them.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 – Tony Parsons, a local Shropshire Councillor for Bayston Hill, Column and Sutton, and two children measuring the tree at Mereside Primary School
For the South Shropshire Interfaith Forum, Mark Michaels talked about his aunts, who came over on the trains, and said:-
“The children’s imagining – putting themselves in the place of the Kindertransport children – was just amazing. Beautiful writing, and read with belief and expression. If I’d discovered them in a folder in my mother’s desk, I would have believed them to be from my ‘aunts’. Well done to the children and congratulations to their teachers who got them to the point where they could do that. Thank you.”
Sheriffhales children made a cut-out Kindertransport train, with individual promises to never forget, and to look after their cherry tree. This was then planted by Faith Adams, Ellie Rawlings, Elie-mae Wall, and Lydia Williams.
Imam Sohayb Peerbhai and Mark Michaels talked with the children, and Reverend Mike Shaw read the special prayer at the end of the ceremony. Sheriffhales Parish Council were also represented at the school through Gordon Tonkinson, who talked about how he had been at the school himself back in 1943.
Additionally, St. Mary’s Primary School in Shawbury took time to hold a special worship assembly, where they learned about Frank Foley, a British spy who helped to rescue at least 10,000 people by getting them out of Germany before World War II started.
In a fitting conclusion to the week, the South Shropshire Interfaith Forum held an online Zoom service on Friday 28 January evening, in which Tony Morris-Eyton, the High Sheriff of Shropshire, participated.
Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities, culture, leisure and tourism, and transport, said:-
“I am so pleased to hear from our officers about how these schools have all taken the messages of the Holocaust and other genocides to heart, and the efforts that they have made to show that they will never forget the lessons to be learned.
“I absolutely commend all the children for their efforts, and I look forward to hearing how the trees continue to grow in their care.
“My thanks also go to the Shrewsbury and South Shropshire Interfaith Forums for their steadfast support, and to Reverend Mike Shaw as the local vicar at Sheriffhales for helping to conclude what I am sure was a very moving ceremony on Holocaust Memorial Day itself.”
Further information
About Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated on 27 January – a date that marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp in occupied Poland. It is a day for everyone to remember the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust; the millions of people killed under Nazi persecution, including from the Roma and Sinti community; and those killed in genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. There is a different theme each year.
Holocaust memorial resource pack
Shropshire Archives staff and other Shropshire Council colleagues have produced a Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 online resource pack, which is available in the Equality, Diversity and Social Inclusion pages of the website at www.shropshire.gov.uk
This is focused on efforts within Shropshire through the Mayor of Shrewsbury’s Committee for Jewish refugee children, and through the records relating to Bunce Court School for German Jewish refugee children. There is also a blog on the Shropshire Archives website.
The resources pack contains more details about the Shropshire cherry tree orchard of remembrance, and the HMD Theme for 2022, as well as a document containing the letters written by the children of Mereside.
