Holocaust Memorial Day - Lowestoft 2012
This is the text of my words at Lowestoft Train Station for HMD 2012. Lowestoft played a small but wonderful role in helping refugee children: I wonder how many times each day, each week we shake hands with people. I wonder how often we find shaking hands a meaningful experience, it can become very much part of an instinctive routine for us. But a hand shake is both symbolic and meaningful; it shows warmth, unity and equality, trust agreement and respect. A hand shake means something. Imagine, then, how 200 child refugees must have felt when, on a cold December day in 1938, Dr Harrold Barraclough – the then mayor of Lowestoft ensured that he shook the hand of each and every child as they disembarked trains before making their way to Pakefield and Southwold. Those children, I suspect, found every meaning in that simple gesture and I feel privileged to now hold the office that represents those actions many years ago. We should remain proud today that Lowestoft played a part in offe