Wigan and Leigh Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations announced

Children who were rescued from the Nazi purges in the Kindertransport programme

January 27 is Holocaust Memorial Day - so chosen because that was the day in 1945 that Allied forces discovered the horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where countless thousands of people were exterminated by the Nazis - and two solemn and special ticket-only ceremonies will be taking place in Wigan and Leigh.

It has been tradition in Wigan for 21 years now and continued even in 2021 when proceedings had to be conducted virtually due to the pandemic.

Police constable from Wigan in the dock on corruption charge

Jean Hensey-Reynard with a commemorative candle at last year's Holocaust Memorial Day which was held remotely

Former teacher Jean Hensey-Reynard has been joining forces with local schools since the start to organise the events and is pleased to report that they will be “live” again this year: the first at Leigh Town Hall from 11am to noon and the second in the atrium of Wigan town hall from 2pm to 3pm.

Featured at both will be a gallery of photographs taken by schoolchildren based on the subject One Day. Eminent adjudicators, including the photographer Rankin and Rwandan survivor and photographer Mussa Uwitonze, judged hundreds of entries from across the region which don’t just touch on the Holocaust but other traumatic episodes in history.

Locally the focus has this year been the Kindertransport programme which evacuated thousands of Jewish children from occupied areas, sparing them the Nazi purges but separating them, sometimes permanently, from their families.

One of the pictures - which cannot be shown yet - was taken by 13-year-old St John Fisher High School pupil Agnes Robin which Jean describes as a “reverse of Kindertransport image” because it deals with Agnes’s mum leaving her behind in India to seek a better life in Britain then, once she had settled in Wigan, Agnes was able to join her. That joyful reunion and seeing snow for the first time is encapsulated in the picture.

The Leigh and Wigan ceremonies will be opened respectively with readings by Wigan Council deputy leader and leader Keith Cunliffe and David Molyneux.

Atherton’s Sacred Heart Primary School pupils, with the author Catherine Bruton’s blessing, will read extracts from her book No Ballet Shoes in Syria, and perform the song Firefly at Leigh while St John Fisher pupils will perform songs and dance on a Kindertransport theme. It is hoped that Agnes and her mum will be there.

Leigh Paperback Writers will give readings at both ceremonies and Jean, who has been holding workshops about Kindertransport at the schools involved, will compere.

Each will end with the ceremonial lighting of Jewish candles.

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