The Fragility of Freedom is the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2024.
The Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Hitesh Tailor, will be leading the borough in marking HMD 2024 at 2 events on Friday 26 January, both of which are open to the public to attend.
Unveiling and rededication of memorial stone
In Walpole Park at 9.15am until 9.45am there will be a rededication of the memorial stone laid to commemorate the rededication of the 6 Holocaust Memorial trees following their relocation from Uxbridge Road.
This event will be attended by the Mayor of Ealing, deputy leader of Ealing Council Councillor Deirdre Costigan, Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, past mayor Councillor Munir Ahmed, David Austin, HMD trustee and Rabbi Vogel of Ealing Synagogue.
The inscription on the stone reads:
“These trees were planted to remember the six million Jews and millions of others murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.”
Deuteronomy ch 20 v. 19
כי האדם עץ השדה (Kie HaAdam Etz Hasadeh)
“Is the tree of the field a man”
This stone was laid to commemorate the rededication of the six Holocaust Memorial trees on 27 January 2022 following their relocation from Uxbridge Road.
The rededication was led by the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Munir Ahmed.
Holocaust Ceremony
The second event will take place at The Atrium, Perceval House, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL from 10.45am with an 11am start.
The Mayor will be joined by Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, Councillor Deirdre Costigan, Rabbi Vogel, the Reverend Dean Ayres, Reverend Joseph Fernandes, the rector of Acton, representatives of the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade, and students from Elthorne Park High School, Brentside High School, Ellen Wilkinson High School, Northolt High School and Drayton Manor High School.
Jeanette Marx will be the guest speaker, and she will tell her mother’s holocaust story. Stones will be laid to commemorate and pay respect to those who lost their lives.
Councillor Peter Mason, leader of Ealing Council, said: “Freedom is a universal principle. It is a basic expectation and condition for a free and equal society.
“In every incidence of genocide however, those who are persecuted have had their freedom restricted and removed. The freedoms of others around them to prevent challenge to these actions are also restricted, demonstrating how fragile freedom is.
“But there are those who choose to risk their own freedom to help others, to stand up to persecution and to preserve others’ freedom.
“Today many people take freedoms for granted, but Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity to reflect on how these freedoms need to be valued, and on how many people around the world face restrictions to their freedoms to live, worship, work and love freely.”
