photographGerman Staff Speak at Holocaust Memorial Day Event

Newcastle University Reader Dr Beate Müller addressed the North Tyneside Council

Location: Cobald Business Part, NE27 0BY
Time/Date: 27th January 2012, 10:00 - 12:00

On the 27th of January 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz concentration camp. With Auschwitz having become a symbol of the Holocaust, commemorations of the Holocaust are often scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the camp’s liberation. This year’s series of commemorative events in Newcastle had the motto "Speak Up – Stand Out" in order to foster critical awareness, especially among school children, of how crucial "Zivilcourage" – the courage to protest against wrongdoing – can be.

One of this year’s key events was hosted by the North Tyneside Council, and organised in co-operation with the Holocaust Memorial Day Sub Committee. On the 27th of January, about 70 pupils from five local primary schools and about the same number of adults gathered in the Council’s Quadrant building to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to reflect on what the Holocaust can teach us.

The event was chaired by the Elected Lady Mayor Linda Arkley. A welcome to everybody from the Chair of North Tyneside Council, Councillor John Stirling opened a varied programme in which children from local schools played a key role (see below ). Among the pupils’ contributions were the recital of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s (1892-1984) famous poem criticizing the lack of protest against the Nazis’ purges (see below); a report on an experiment on discrimination and its effects carried out in their school, and the singing of a Holocaust song composed by the children themselves. The children’s contributions were interspersed with brief speeches by dignitaries such as Rabbi Aaron Lipsey, Father Frank Ford, Archdeacon Geoff Miller, and John Anderson from Show Racism the Red Card.

The keynote address was delivered by Dr Beate Müller, Reader in German at the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle University. She specialises in Holocaust Studies, and therefore had been invited to address the Council. She spoke on "’How I survived the war’: Children’s Holocaust Testimonies". In her talk, Dr Müller focused on examples from two very different collections of child Holocaust testimonies from the early post-war period: the interview and oral history project by psychologist David Boder and an unpublished manuscript of testimonies by Shlomo Tsam, headteacher at the Hebrew School in Polish Bytom, who collated survival stories from his pupils. She showed how strong the impact of the interviewer or the adult author of the written testimonies were on the content of the children’s testimonies.

The event ended by people lighting candles and visiting the Garden of Contemplation.

(image: North Tyneside Council’s Garden of Contemplation, which commemorates the deaths of 6 million European Jews, as well as the deaths of thousands of Sinti and Roma, handicapped, gay and lesbian people, during the Holocaust).

Pastor Martin Niemöller’s poem:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Holocaust Memorial Day Website: Programme Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January 2012 In The Quadrant Starting at 10.00am

  • Welcome to everyone from the Chair of North Tyneside Council, Councillor John Stirling
  • Mrs Linda Arkley, Elected Mayor to Chair the event
  • Rabbi Aaron Lipsey
  • HMD song for 2012 from Holy Cross RC Primary School 
  • Father Frank Ford, Waterville Primary School
  • Dr Beate Müller – ‘How I survived the war’, Children’s holocaust testimonies
  • Archdeacon Geoff Miller 
  • Anne Frank ambassadors to describe their work
  • Show Racism the Red Card 
  • Southridge First School
  • Elected Mayor Mrs Linda Arkley to close the 2012 event
  • Candle Lighting, time for reflection for all with pupils singing the HMD 2012 song

This event was organised by the Holocaust Memorial Day Sub-Committee.  There was also an opportunity to sign the HMD book and visit the Garden of Contemplation. 

Published: 2nd February 2012