Buildings to turn purple to commemorate the Holocaust
Key Chichester buildings will turn purple in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.
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.
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.”
Martyn was actually born on the day Auschwitzbirkenau 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.
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.