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The extraordinary story of 10,000 unaccompanied children who escaped Nazi Europe on the Kindertransport has touched visitors at an exhibition to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in Uttlesford.
Uttlesford District Council chairman Cllr Catherine Dean, whose initiative it was to bring the exhibition to the district, said: “The exhibition has made a deep impression on all who have seen it, reinforced by a real life story which has made it so much more gripping.”
The week-long viewing has drawn hundreds of visitors to the foyer of Saffron Walden Friends’ Meeting House on the High Street. It closes on Wednesday 6 February at 5pm. It was previously on display at the Helena Romanes School in Great Dunmow.
The exhibition, entitled ‘The Last Goodbye’, has been created by the Jewish Museum in London and offers poignant lessons of the past still relevant in today’s world. Its visit to the district coincided with national Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 08 on 27 January, dedicated in remembrance of the Holocaust victims. The date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945.
Francis Deutsch, chairman of Saffron Walden Amnesty International Group. has told visitors his own personal story of arriving in Britain in July 1939 on the Kindertransport at the age of 12. His experience has brought the historic event to life for today’s school children, many barely older than when he embarked on his own escape to safety.
Schools have taken classes to view the display and hear Francis Deutsch tell his eyewitness account of that period prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Among them have been pupils from Rickling Primary School, whose Head Teacher Helen Robertson said: “Thank you for a moving and enlightening exhibition and talk. The children will never forget what they have seen and heard.”
Other students came from the Friends’ School as well as Saffron Walden County High. The latter had a week of assemblies linked to the theme led by sixth formers on the topic and some also attended last Thursday (31 Jan) evening’s talk on genocide given by Bruce Wylie, Head of Activism at Amnesty International UK. It was organised by the local branch of Amnesty in St Mary's Church Parish Rooms.
On Holocaust Memorial Day itself (Sunday 27 January), a special service was held at the United Reformed Church in Abbey Lane taken by the Rev. Richard Bray.
Here are a selection of comments recorded by visitors to the exhibition in Saffron Walden:
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a very interesting and evocative exhibition
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powerful and very moving
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wonderfully put together – everyone should see it
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very moving and in some ways very scary
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touching and informative
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My mother was on the Kindertransport. The exhibition fills in some questions and answers
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thought provoking
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