A MAN whose family were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz spoke movingly at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in Christchurch.

Harry Grenville described his childhood as part of a Jewish family in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, during the event held at the Captain’s Club Hotel.

Detailing the events which led to his parents and grandparents losing their wholesale business, and in turn their income, he also recalled when their synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, on November 10, 1938.

Mr Grenville was one of 10,000 children who came to Britain under the Kindertransport programme.

The scheme evacuated children from countries across Europe as the Nazis marched in.

Arriving here in 1939, Mr Grenville was fostered by a non-Jewish family in North Cornwall.

Devastatingly, he was to discover that his parents and grandparents had been killed in Auschwitz.

Josephine Jackson also told the story of her friend Gisela Freiberg-Thomas who had arrived in Britain on the SS St Louis which left Germany in May 1939.

Originally bound for Cuba, the boat returned to Europe, where Gisela was one of 288 refugees accepted by Britain.

She met her husband Gordon Thomas and moved to Dorset, where she practised and taught millinery, before they came to live in Mudeford. Sadly, Gisela passed away in April 2015, aged 92.

After a prayer from the Vicar of Christchurch, Reverend Canon Charles Stewart, the Mayor of Christchurch, Cllr Fred Neale read the Statement of Commitment in remembrance of the millions of people who were murdered or whose lives were changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust and in subsequent genocides.

The ceremony ended with prayers from Rabbi Jesner from the Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation.

Wreaths were laid at Christchurch Quay’s memorial by Gordon Thomas in memory of his wife Gisela, the Mayor, Cllr Fred Neale, and by Rose Hopkins and Luis Martinez from The Priory School.

  • A MOVING ceremony in remembrance of the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany was held at Bournemouth Town Hall. 

The council chamber was packed with residents paying their respects on the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

Explaining the principle of this year’s theme - ‘don’t stand by’ - event organiser Lynda Ford-Horne said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is important - not for grown ups like me - but for future generations.

“They need to know that by standing by they are not doing the right thing. Bullying can turn into something really, really nasty. 

“Calling somebody a name can eventually become holocaust or genocide.”

Reading from Pastor Martin Niemöller’s iconic poem First They Came, the council’s chief executive Tony Williams said: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.

“Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”