Thought For The Day – Monday 27th January 2025
Holocaust Memorial Day
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
The theme this year is: “Learn, remember and take action for a better future”.
The word Holocaust means mass destruction. The Hebrew word is Shoah.
The Holocaust was the systematic bullying, persecution and murder of the Jewish people by the Nazis. 6.6 million Jewish people were murdered by the Nazis.
The black, women’s, LGBTQ+, disabled, traveller, cultural, religious, political, ill, young, elderly and vulnerable communities were also bullied, persecuted and murdered in The Holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial Day also equally remembers all the victims of genocide globally, before, and since. For example, in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur in Sudan. Genocide is the persecution and murder of a race of people, ethnic group or nation.
All bullying, coercion, hate, negative prejudice and discrimination, persecution, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, cultural and religious negative prejudice and discrimination, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, ageism, ableism and classism are illegal, immoral and totally wrong.
Holocaust education raises awareness atrocities and evil globally, in the past and the present, and the importance of history and positive moral action in the present and future.
Holocaust education reminds us that evil often starts at a very individual and local level and stresses the importance of all doing good at all times.
Today is a very important day.
This year, 2025, and today, marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This will be a particularly poignant moment.
There will be less survivors in this life today to bear witness at the international commemorations. With the years, survivors pass on.
But we must never, ever forget.
Hannah Lewis M.B.E., 86 years old, is a regular visitor to TBSHS.
Hannah’s wonderful mother, Chaya Szczuryk, sacrificed her life for Hannah when she decided to stay with a very ill and sick Hannah, rather than escape on a freezing cold evening. Hannah’s mum was worried about whether her daughter would survive in such cold conditions.
For that night, Hannah’s mother had been briefly visited, and warned, by her husband and Hannah’s father, Adam, who was a member of the resistance and opposition to the Nazis, that the Nazis would be arriving the next day.
In the hours that followed, and as morning came, after a knock at the door, and after Hannah’s mum had hugged and kissed Hannah to say what would be goodbye, Hannah saw her mother, with great dignity, walk outside, be lined up and fall to floor as Hannah’s mother was shot by the Nazis.
Hannah’s mother gave her life for her daughter.
Hannah, the epitome of resilience, once said to us that she has “learnt to live alongside the pain” of the trauma of her childhood.
After the war, Hannah settled in the U.K., where she was warmly welcomed. Hannah married in 1961. Hannah has four children and eight grandchildren.
Today, Hannah’s smile radiates warmth, positivity and love. Hannah is a remarkable and inspiring citizen. In 2018, Hannah was awarded an M.B.E. for all her courageous and wonderful witness and work. Sharing her story is sharing her life and trauma to help others.
Very appropriately, our final guest and visiting speaker at our former school site, on London Road, was Hannah Lewis M.B.E.
Hannah has always described her visits to the school as “like coming home”.
We hope Hannah can be welcomed to our new school facilities in the months to come.
Today The Bishop’s Stortford High School remembers Holocaust Memorial Day.
We keep in our hearts and souls all who have suffered and continue to suffer in the world.
We spread compassion, kindness, love and respect each and every day.
In an interview with the BBC in January 2024, Hannah Lewis M.B.E. said the following:
“I am telling you this because I like you so much and I want you to be vigilant. We should not be horrible to each other. We should not want to kill each other. There is plenty of room for everything and everybody. We need to be kinder to each other.”
Pictured above: Hannah’s mother, Hannah’s father and Hannah’s last two visits to our school.