Cheshire East held a poignant service of remembrance to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, 27 January. The service included readings of testaments from survivors of genocide, the lighting of memorial candles and a minute’s silence.
The leader of the council, Councillor Nick Mannion, and deputy leader Councillor Michael Gorman attended and gave short addresses, including poignant personal testimony about the experiences of both their fathers who, as prisoners of war doing forced labour in Germany and Poland, witnessed the horrific reality of the Holocaust.
The guest speaker was Hannah Goldstone, who told the compelling and tragic story of her extended family in Germany before the war, including her grandfather Martin Wertheim, who came to the UK on the Kindertransport in March 1939, aged nine – leaving his parents and brother Ernst behind. His brother followed to the UK some months later but their mother died of illness shortly before the outbreak of the war and their father and stepmother were murdered in the Holocaust.