Lowestoft Station, an arrival point for the Kindertransport in 1938, will host the town’s annual commemoration event for Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday 27 January.
All are welcome to attend the event which will commence at 9:45am in the station parcel office exhibition space, followed by a wreath laying on the concourse. The service will also include readings from local school pupils and short talks from historians and religious and civic leaders.
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place annually, with the aim of encouraging people to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
Last year, the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and Lowestoft Central Project produced an interpretation panel at the station, retelling the events of the 1938 arrival of over 500 mostly Jewish children in Lowestoft from Vienna, having been rescued from Nazi oppression.
The display includes details of the children’s journey across Europe by both rail and steamship, their arrival in Lowestoft, and information relating to the circumstances which prompted their evacuation and how this was achieved.
Speaking at the unveiling of the display in January 2023, Martin Halliday, Community Rail Officer for the Wherry Lines CRP, said: “Whilst on Holocaust Memorial Day we remember the millions of lives lost through genocide, the unveiling of the history panel at the station provides a permanent reminder of the horrific circumstances that led to the Vienna Kindertransport and recognises the small part Lowestoft played in welcoming those Austrian children, whose lives were undoubtably saved.”
