Today, Thursday 27 January, the lights outside London Liverpool Street station have been turned purple for Holocaust Memorial Day.
The station, which is run by Network Rail, is lighting up alongside other UK landmarks in remembrance of the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Liverpool Street is also commemorating the part it had to play, along with the wider railway, in the organised rescue mission known as the Kindertransport.
The Kindertransport brought 10,000 mainly Jewish children to the UK from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and later Poland between December 1938 and September 1939.
It was not possible for the children to leave from German ports, so most travelled by train to the Netherlands from their home countries, where they boarded cross-channel ferries to the port at Harwich.
If they had foster homes or hostels to go to, the children would then go by train to Liverpool Street, where they would be met by their new families, or the organisations that had arranged their accommodation.
Liverpool Street has two permanent memorials recognising its role as the final stop on a long journey to safety for the Kindertransport children.
The memorial on Hope Square, by McDonald’s, stands directly under the lights that have been turned purple today. Unveiled in 2006, it depicts five disorientated children, newly arrived in a foreign land. It was created by the sculptor Frank Meisler, who himself came to Britain as a Kindertransport child.
Ahead of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, the two charities which originally commissioned the sculpture, World Jewish Relief and the Association of Jewish Refugees, came together again to fund a specialist deep clean to return the original shine to the memorial.
Both charities are over 80 years old and were instrumental in rescuing Jewish people from Nazi Europe and supporting them after they reached their destination.
In total, World Jewish Relief helped 65,000 refugees to escape, including children on board the Kindertransports. Today it remains at the forefront of the UK Jewish community’s response to humanitarian crises all over the world. Meanwhile, having been established in 1941, the Association of Jewish Refugees continues to support and represent Holocaust refugees and survivors living in Great Britain, as well as their descendants and dependents.
The second memorial, with the boy and the girl, is by the entrance to the Tube on the main concourse. This was created by Flor Kent and is called Fur Das Kind (For the Child / Pro Dítê).
Emma Watson, Network Rail station manager for Liverpool Street, said: “We hope that our purple lights will help people take a moment to remember the millions of victims of the Holocaust, as well as the horrors of subsequent genocides.
“This is a day which has special significance for us, because our station was part of the remarkable story of the Kindertransport, which saved thousands of children’s lives.
“We are proud to have two Kindertransport memorials in prominent locations on our site. Every day I see passengers take time to study the children in the memorials, clearly thinking about their amazing journey to safety and who may have helped them along the way, but also about the people they left behind.”
Paul Anticoni, Chief Executive of World Jewish Relief, said: “The Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street is an important national symbol and educational resource. It honours the children and their rescue, but also serves as a warning and a permanent reminder of where inaction in the face of persecution can lead.
“I’d like to thank Network Rail and all those from the nearby restaurants for their daily work to look out for the memorial and keep it free of litter.
“Following the deep clean that we funded with the Association of Jewish Refugees, the sculpture now looks as striking as when it was first installed, meaning that it will keep catching the eye of passers-by during the months and years to come.”
Photo credit: Network Rail
