Poignant readings at Holocaust memorial event in Lowestoft

A ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day was held at Kensington Gardens.

Red Oak Primary School pupils at Kensington Gardens in Lowestoft. Picture: Mick Howes (Image: Mick Howes)

Primary School pupils delivered a series of poignant readings at the park, which is the home of the Peace Bench and a Holocaust Memorial Flower Garden that contains a commemorative lectern showing the concentration camp identification badges.

The Year 5 pupils from Red Oak Primary School gathered with the Friends of Kensington Gardens, Lowestoft town councillors and locals to hear the mayor of Lowestoft, Sonia Barker, who welcomed everyone to the park last Friday.

Mayor of Lowestoft, Sonia Barker, at Kensington Gardens in Lowestoft. Picture: Mick Howes (Image: Mick Howes)

She said: "It is so important that we remember Holocaust Memorial Day – the theme of which is the 'fragility of freedom'.

"Freedom is something that we often take for granted."

Teacher Dion Wood added: "Every year at Red Oak Primary School we learn about World War Two, the experience of evacuees, Kindertransport children and the atrocities of the holocaust.

"We learn about the persecution that the Jewish people faced.

Red Oak Primary School teacher Dion Wood at Kensington Gardens in Lowestoft. Picture: Mick Howes (Image: Mick Howes)

"We learn about Anne Frank and her family hiding to avoid capture and the conditions in the Death Camps.

"The reason we learn this is to ensure that these abhorrent events are never repeated.

"In our writing this week our students have penned poems influenced by the holocaust – as by understanding feelings of the Jewish people and their emotions we can begin to make connections with them."

Mayor of Lowestoft Sonia Barker with the nine Red Oak Primary School pupils who read poems at Kensington Gardens in Lowestoft. Picture: Mick Howes (Image: Mick Howes)

Nine pupils then read their poems before others symbolically planted their daffodil artwork in the Holocaust Memorial Flower Garden.

The artwork was displayed in the Tearooms during the day.

A town council spokesman said: "Thank you to everyone involved in making the event a success, including the teachers and pupils from Red Oak Primary School, the Friends of Kensington Gardens and the Kensington Gardens Tearooms."