Tomorrow’s Sunday

The retired teacher rises to address her audience. At first hesitant, then, as she senses the warmth of those to whom she is speaking, more confident.

She is there to tell her father’s story: he died two years ago but he might have died many years ago had he not survived the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial Day is observed on January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

In the weeks and months beforehand, those who organise commemorations will try to find a survivor of the Nazi death camps to come and tell their story.

In spite of the inhumane way in which they were treated many of the survivors live to ripe old age, but as the years pass their number is, inevitably, dwindling.

Maybe their children (like Marta Joseph, who spoke in Newcastle this year) will pick up the torch and ensure that their stories do not die.

Why? Is it not morbid to keep dwelling on horrific events that happened many years ago? Isn’t it time to draw a line under it all and move on? But we must continue to tell the stories and plead with one another to learn from them.

When the word ‘remember’ is used in the New Testament it means much more than just looking back. To remember the past is to bring it into the present and allow it to change us, and others.

We are living through days that seem as uncertain as those which saw the rise of Nazism: many people are abused because of their race, colour, religion, way of life, just as they were then.

Looking back on the horror of the Holocaust, a German pastor reflected that he had failed to speak up for the various groups that offended Nazi ideology because he was not a communist or a trade unionist or a Jew.

He did not speak, but ‘Then’ he said ‘they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me’. If we learn anything from our past let us learn to have the courage to speak up and speak out for all victims of injustice.

Fr Chris Jackson, Chester-le- Street and

Sacriston