Chichester will turn purple to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

Key Chichester buildings will turn purple in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Martyn was born on the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberatedMartyn was born on the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated
Martyn was born on the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated

The Council House in North Street and the City Cross will be lit from 5pm for the night on Wednesday, January 27. Chichester Festival Theatre will also turn purple from approximately 6pm to 11pm.

The Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day committee is also hosting a virtual commemoration on Zoom at 11am on January 27.

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Clare Apel, chairman of CMHMD, has invited people and organisations which have been involved and supported CMHMD since it was established in 2014.

The Zoom will mark HMD and also the 150th anniversary of the death of John Abel Smith MP, the Member of Parliament for Chichester who campaigned so hard and effectively for religious freedoms in England in the mid-19th century. Current Chichester MP Gillian Keegan will join the commemoration on Zoom and pay a short tribute to her 19th-century predecessor.

It will maintain Chichester’s proud tradition of marking the day.

As Clare explains: “In 2014, Martyn Bell, a fellow Chichester District Councillor, my husband Ralph Apel, Trevor James and I decided to mark Holocaust Memorial Day January 27 2015 in Chichester as it was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

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Martyn was actually born on the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated; Clare and Ralph lost large numbers of family in the Holocaust.

“Encouraged by other CDC members, we formed a small group, named it Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day (CMHMD) and decided that a very appropriate way to mark the 70th anniversary was to hold a multi-faith commemoration service at the mausoleum of John Abel Smith MP in Chichester cemetery. Our group contacted The Cathedral, Chichester University, Chichester College and Bishop Luffa School and the result was a very meaningful service attended by over 100 people. Since then CMHMD has organised the Holocaust operas Last Train to Tomorrow and PUSH in the Cathedral and PUSH at the Cathedral, St Paul’s Church, CFT and the Palace of Westminster along with connected film screenings at New Park Cinema.”

They were hoping to hold a second commemoration service at the mausoleum of John Abel Smith MP this year: “However, because of Covid-19 restrictions we have decided instead to hold the commemoration entirely virtually on Zoom.”

Sadly, other planned events have had to fall by the wayside. However, Clare is pleased to say that a number of schools are already saying they will commemorate HMD through remote assemblies. The Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day group will provide additional resources for the schools.

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In the words of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Holocaust Memorial Day encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide. The trust promotes and supports HMD to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

This year, as part of Chichester’s commemoration, Sir Michael Morpurgo was to have brought The Mozart Question to Chichester Festival Theatre, a powerful story of friendship and family which centres on Paulo Levi, a world-famous performer who developed his passion for music as a young child. Also in Chichester, Sir Michael was to have attended two screenings at the Chichester Cinema at New Park of the film adaptation of his book Waiting For Anya. Five schools were due to attend. In the lockdown, the film and show have had to be cancelled.

Jill Hoskins, Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day vice-chairman, said: “It is very disappointing that we can’t do this now – and very disappointing for these schools who were so supportive of Holocaust Memorial Day. They were really committed to bringing the children and to continuing to educate the children about the Holocaust.”

Clare, group chairman, added: “I do hope it will carry on. There are very few survivors from the Holocaust living now… and children of survivors. But the Holocaust Memorial Trust is very strong in this country, and they are not just talking about World War Two. They are talking about Rwanda and Syria and so on as well.”

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Memories of the Chichester staging of the Holocaust opera Push, which was co-directed by Jill, remain strong.

“It was a lasting memory for so many children,” Jill said. “It was about how they felt about it subsequently. Many teachers were saying that at the end of the year, the children reflected on their highlights, and for many it was seeing the opera or going into a theatre for the first time. They had realised the horrors of what happened, and because the community opera had a strong children’s presence, they could really relate to the children and see what it must have been like for 11 and 12-year-olds and relate to that situation. They could think how they would have felt… and that is what we are trying to do, to make young children think that we can’t let something like that happen again.”

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