Each year Haywards Heath Amnesty International group creates a memorial service and joins the Town Council officers, local religious leaders, members of the public, pupils form Oathall Community School and Great Walstead School  to honour the millions of people across the world who have died in genocides.

This year on Annual Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th 2023, we were additionally blessed by singing and art work from both schools. The theme was Ordinary People as both victims and perpetrators were ordinary people, just like us.

Our local Iman, Morad Hosin reminded us of the 3 million people in Bangladesh murdered in 1971 during their struggle for independence. The killing fields of Cambodia were remembered with a poem written by a genocide victim and with a small information board (see photo). 

All victims of genocide were honoured, including those that occurred in Srebenica, Armenia and Rwanda. 

Lesley Urbach spoke movingly about the murder of her grandparents in Auschwitz, and the separation of her mother from her parents forever when she travelled to England as part of the Kinder Transport. She works for an organisation Generation 2 Generation which focusses on educating future generations about the causes and the results of the Jewish Holocaust in World War 2.

The event was covered by BBC television South East local news and many pupils were interviewed about their reflections on the event. We are very grateful that this next generation were able to join us and contribute so much to this memorial for the victims. Our hopes lie with these young people.