Lord Alf Dubs arrived in the UK in 1939 on the Kindertransport as a six-year-old refugee fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
The 92-year-old recounted his experiences at a Holocaust Memorial Day service organised by Camden Council on Tuesday (January 29), following this year’s theme ‘For a Better Future’.
Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a complex of more than 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.
Lord Alf Dubs at Camden’s Holocaust Memorial Event (Image: Justin Thomas)
Lord Dubs said it was “all our responsibilities” to speak out against rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.
He added: “What is shocking to look at on the statistics is that of the voice of young people in this country, who either didn’t know about the Holocaust or didn’t care.”
He said for all the efforts made by councils and organisations “there are still too many people who are not aware”.
“It’s our job is to spread the word. It’s our job never ever to be silenced and it’s a challenge,” he said.
“A lot of things are working hard against us, which is why the increase in antisemitism and the increase in Islamophobia are very depressing signs.
“And the fact there are Jews in this country who are wondering if they should be in the country. Who’d have thought 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz such a thing would be possible in this country?”
Camden Council, in partnership with the Jewish Museum London, JW3 and the Wiener Holocaust Library, held the event to remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and commemorate the victims of atrocities and genocides worldwide, including those in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, and Cambodia.
The service included songs from the Belsize Park Synagogue Choir and six home-schooled friends performed John Williams’ Schindler’s List theme.
Marie-Rose Rurangirwa, from Rwandan genocide survivors organisation the Ishami Foundation, also spoke.
At the age of 11, she survived the 1994 mass murder, in which her family and one million other Tutsis were killed by ethnic Hutu extremists.
She said afterwards: “We’re up against a lot. There’s a lot of racism and antisemitism and all sorts of crimes that we can do something, otherwise the battle continues to intensify and I for one cannot watch and keep quiet.
“It’s the hard truth that we should choose to speak about, engaging in uncomfortable conversations, but it takes a choice to do that.”
The Jewish Museum shared a video of British-born Eastender and Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman, who died in 2008.
His wife Else and toddler son Barney were gassed when they arrived at the concentration camp.
Cllr Nadia Shah said it was the 30th anniversary of the Bosnian genocide, in which 8,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica were murdered by the Serbs in less than three days.
She said it was a “stark reminder of the persistence of hatred and the devastating consequences of unchecked intolerance”.
Council leader Cllr Richard Olszewski shared the story of his Polish parents, saying the Holocaust had a “massive impact” on them although they were not Jewish.
His father survived the Mauthausen death camp in Austria, and his mother was forced into slavery as a domestic worker for SS officers.
Her brother was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, in Germany.
He said: “It helped me understand the trauma inflicted on them by Nazi tyranny and also instilled in me a visceral opposition to antisemitism and any politics that promotes and feeds on hatred and division.
“My parents also instilled in me that we always have to build a better future, the theme of this year’s commemoration.”
He added: “Everyone has a role to play in making sure our communities are not persecuted because of our differences.
“There is always more we can do and learn.”
