Twitter users share #FirstSurvivor experiences for Holocaust Memorial Day
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here
HMD 2019Twitter remembrance

Twitter users share #FirstSurvivor experiences for Holocaust Memorial Day

Campaign follows appeal earlier this month for Twitter users to describe their first experience of antisemitism.

Twitter users have taken to social media to share their first memories of meeting Shoah survivors to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, in response to a rabbi’s Twitter appeal.

In a tweet published yesterday, Rabbi Zvi Solomons asked people to share their first memories of meeting Holocaust survivors under the hashtag #FirstSurvivor.

Among the responses, one came from Judy Stone, a Forbes contributor and clinical researcher, who tweeted: “My #FirstSurvivor mother (at first) didn’t want her grandchildren to know her so it wouldn’t hurt so much when she died.

“She really started loving life when she hit 90. My daughter sang ‘For Good’ to her at a pageant and her funeral.”

Henry Grunwald, President, World Jewish Relief and Chairman of the UK National Holocaust Centre said: “My father, Eugen, arrived in the UK from Czechoslovakia on 4/8/39. He was lucky. He had a work permit. Almost all of his large family were murdered in the death camps #firstsurvivor

Meanwhile, David Pinto-Duschins, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Hendon added: “My was my father. Smuggled out of the Munkacs ghetto as a baby and hidden in an orphanage for deaf and blind children in Budapest. Most of the rest of the family perished. Brought to this country after the war as a child refugee.”

Lawyer Barbara Rich added, the first survivor she knew was “my late mother b[orn]. Prague 1924, young refugee in Denmark 1939, Sweden 1943, England 1946, picture l. teaching chemistry in London school in 1980s.. drawing of Prague on the day of her departure. She never saw her mother again”.

Describing his first survivor in a tweet, Rabbi Solomons said: “My was my (Great) Uncle Shimon Kole, who was hidden by French nuns in the South of France.

“His daughter Sarah was in Auschwitz, (I think were the first ones I remember meeting) although being Jewish I was probably surrounded by survivors, in a way all Jews are”.

Speaking to Jewish News, Rabbi Solomons said: “People are more willing to open up using modern technology.

“It seems to have tapped into some emotion and of course the stories are both very beautiful and very sad.

“Some of it is really heartbreaking but also it’s an important historical record.”

He added: “People forget that Jews have to live with this all the time. It’s not just on one day.”

The social media appeal, which drew hundreds of retweets and responses, follows a similar social media campaign Rabbi Solomons launched earlier this month under the hashtag #FirstAntisemiticExperience.

The religious leader of the Jewish Community of Berkshire in Reading asked online users to describe their experience of antisemitism.

You can read more about #FirstAntisemiticExperience here.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: