Ordinary People
Friday 27 January – Sunday 12 February
Holocaust Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for the six million Jews, 500,000 Roma and the many millions killed in Nazi persecutions and later genocides.
Since 2015, Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day Group have run events in the days around Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) on January 27, which marks the date of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.
The national theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2023 is ‘Ordinary People’ – a concept that can be applied on many levels to the positions people are put in during these horrific events. Ordinary people are the victims, the helpers and the perpetrators, or just people that stood by and did nothing during the Holocaust and other genocides.
Holocaust Memorial Day events at Depot
Film: Three Minutes: A Lengthening
with short talk by a member of the Lewes HMD Group
Friday 27 January, 15:00
(Rated 12A, 2021, 1 hr 9 mins plus a live talk)
An extraordinary documentary giving a window into prewar Jewish life in Poland, spun from a fragment of a Kodak home movie reel shot by a Jewish emigré on a visit in 1938 to the place of his birth. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, the film is an eerie reminder of a civilisation on the eve of being erased for ever.
A contemplation of Genocide Letters
Saturday 28 January, 14:00 – 16:30
Bring in any letters you may have (from a friend or family member, or from a published source) from those affected by the Holocaust and other genocides, or write one of your own from imagination. The group will read, respond to and create an assembly of the letters during the event.
With Christine Cohen Park, writer and facilitator.
This is a free event, but registration is essential. Please email [email protected] to register.
Film: Au Revoir Les Enfants
with short intro by a member of the Lewes HMD Group
Sunday 29 January, 14:00
(Rated PG, 1987, 104 mins, French with subtitles)
Based on wartime events in the childhood of director Louis Malle, this highly acclaimed film beautifully recreates life in 1944 in a boarding school in Nazi-occupied France as three Jewish boys arrive at a school fleeing from persecution.
Music and Words: Ordinary People
Saturday 28 January, 19:00 – 20:30
Local poets and musicians gather to reflect on the theme of ‘Ordinary People’, in an evening of music, song and stories.
This is a free event, but registration is essential. Please email [email protected] to register.
Talk: History Versus Myth
Sunday 12 February, 18:00 – 19:30
Acclaimed author of Whitehall and the Jews 1933-48, Louise London talks on the theme of British responses to the Jewish flight from Nazism.
This is a free event, but registration is essential. Please email [email protected] to register.
Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day Group
The programme was put together by this group in conjunction with the national organisation, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. The Trust commemorates 27 January, the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. Holocaust Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for the millions of people killed in Nazi persecutions and later genocides.
For news and to find out more about the group, please visit the website. If you would like to be involved in this or future HMD projects in Lewes, please get in contact via the website or facebook group.
The national Holocause Memorial Day Trust’s annual one-hour online event takes place on Thursday 26 January at 20:00. See hmd.org.uk for details on how to view.
The organisers would like to thank Lewes Town Council, Lewes District Council and Depot Cinema for their generous support.