Leacsaidh MacDonald Marlow
Holocaust Memorial (or Remembrance) Day (HMD) occurs on the 27th of January. It is an internationally observed day commemorating the millions of victims killed in the Holocaust, during the period of widespread Nazi persecution. It is also a day in which we observe and remember the victims of subsequent genocides that occurred in Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda.
The topic of HMD 2023 was ‘ordinary people’, with memorial events and talks focusing on the individuals and the ‘ordinary people’ who faced persecution, or were perpetrators and bystanders to it. The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, hosted a memorial event on Thursday 26th January dedicated to portraying this theme. The first portion of the events included talks from many different speakers, with each representing and discussing a different aspect of the persecution that victims faced during the Holocaust, and in some subsequent genocides. This included discussion of primarily the persecution of Jewish adults and children, alongside physically and mentally disabled people and homosexual people. Speakers included academics and diversity officers from both universities, as well as students from both, who all dedicated time to discussing the injustices that occurred in a way that was poignant, educational, and continually drew our attention back to the fact that these people being spoken about were ordinary people, just like any of the speakers or attendees listening.
Mindu gave a touching testimony detailing her struggles with Nazi persecution throughout WWII
Following the talks delivered, we walked up to the Djanogly terrace where all attendees were invited to light a candle, each of which contained a note card detailing the name, age and place of death of a Holocaust victim.
On Tuesday 7th February, we were very lucky to have Mindu Hornick, a survivor of the Holocaust, visit the University in order to give a talk. Mindu gave a touching testimony detailing her struggles with Nazi persecution throughout WWII, including her imprisonment in the largest Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau aged 13, a period during which she lost all of her family except for her sister, aunt and uncle. Mindu spoke both of the atrocities that she faced at the hands of the Nazis, including the family and friends that she lost in the forced labour and concentration camps, but also of her life before her deportation to Auschwitz in 1941, a life which, in a video testimony on the HMD Trust’s website, she calls ‘idyllic’. Mindu went on to speak of her life following her liberation from the forced labour camp in 1945, after which she moved to Prague but was later forced to flee again due to Soviet invasion in 1948, being separated from her sister, finally got placed on a train to England and settled in Birmingham where she lives to this day.
Her dedication to reliving the horrors that she faced in hope that no one else ever will
Mindu has been delivering Holocaust education to schools and universities for close to 35 years, and has been awarded an MBE due to her ‘services to Holocaust education’. The 93-year-old continues to share her story to thousands, and encourages them to pass it on in the hope that people never forget the lives and stories of those victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides, and that nothing like this ever occurs again. It was an honour for students at the University of Nottingham to hear Mindu’s story; her dedication to reliving the horrors that she faced in hope that no one else ever will is a testament to the strength of ‘ordinary people’ and reinforces the necessity of observing Holocaust Memorial Day year after year so that voices like hers are never lost.
Leacsaidh MacDonald Marlow
Featured image courtesy of Leacsaidh MacDonald Marlow. Permission to use granted to Impact. No changes were made to this image.
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