Holocaust Memorial Day

On Holocaust Memorial Day, Friday 27 January, children helped by Safe Passage attended a ceremony in Parliament to rededicate the Kindertransport plaque.

Sami, one of the children in attendance, said: ‘I came out of Syria not by choice but not by war… I am here and try to look to the future’ ‘I stayed in France for ten months… after six months I met Safe Passage who could help bring me here to my family’ ‘thanks god I arrived here safely, at first I was scared but then I realised that the British people were good and they welcomed me’ ‘ I ask of you today to remember my friends who are still there, and others like my friend who was killed trying to reach Britain by lorry’.

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP said: “Safe Passage is a modern form of the kindertransport… it’s a huge tribute to those (like Nicholas Winton) who led that initiative.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, reflecting on New Testament, when Jesus speaks about caring for the poor, said:  “When you looked after them, you looked after me.”

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis, said: ‘The ultimate test of a nation is the manner in which it treats its most vulnerable and in the midst of its most vulnerable you’ll find its children.”

Lord Dubs said: “The holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, it started with words… we need to speak out today.”