Olivia Marks-Woldman, at The Blogs

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Apr 12, 2022, 4:43 PM

A national Memorial to the Holocaust is relevant to everyone

Protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London ahead of a hearing regarding the UK Holocaust Memorial, 2022 (Jewish News)

The past few years have seen respect for those in authority plummet – over and again, surveys show people distrust politicians, the police, even doctors. We have also seen disagreements between people – usually, but not only, online – take place with vitriolic language, a...

Feb 3, 2022, 5:05 PM

Day of high emotion gives me renewed hope and confidence

Olivia at last Thursday’s event in Piccadilly Circus

As Holocaust Memorial Day drew to a close last week, I was tired and emotional. I was in Piccadilly Circus, with the giant screens filled with images of Holocaust survivors, many with family members, smiling out across London. These photos were from the Generations project,...

Jan 26, 2022, 3:29 PM

On Holocaust Memorial Day, we have a duty to stand up for the Uyghurs

A woman seen shouting slogans while holding a placard during a protest against the Chinese policies in Xinjiang.
(Via Jewish News)

Today is a day of solemn reflection and remembering the past. And it’s also a forward-looking day of action and of concern for tomorrow. Today Uyghur Muslims in China are facing state-sponsored persecution. They are torn from their families, brutally forced to give up their...

Nov 19, 2020, 2:12 PM

Justice of a kind

Nuremberg Trials: looking down on the defendants' dock. Ca. 1945-46.

In November 1945, the surviving leaders of Nazi Germany were put on trial for the murder of six million Jews and millions of other people who belonged to groups deemed ‘undesirable’ to the Nazis. Seventy five years on, we know the profound significance of these trials. Not only was the full scale of Nazis’ cruelty brought to light, but at the same time modern international criminal law was...

Aug 2, 2019, 11:21 AM

75 years on, remembering the Roma victims of the Nazis

Roma prisoners (Credit USHMM/ HMDT via Jewish News)

On the evening of 2 August 1944, the ‘Gypsy Family Camp’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau was ‘liquidated’ under orders from Heinrich Himmler. Following weeks of deportations, all 2,897 remaining Roma and Sinti men, women and children were taken to the gas chambers and murdered. In total, 200,000...

Jan 25, 2019, 11:51 AM

With rising intolerance, Holocaust Memorial Day is more vital than ever

Olivia listens to Holocaust survivor Helen Aronson at an HMD reception

It doesn’t take long to find these views on social media: “The Holocaust didn’t happen, but it should have.” “The Holocaust is a lie, but what a great idea. Removing 6 million Jews sounds like a wonderful plan.” Shockingly, there are many people who hold...

Jan 10, 2019, 11:46 AM

Dignified service so long overdue

Bushey Cemetery, Herts, designed by Waugh Thistleton Architects, which has been shortlisted for the Riba Stirling Prize,

Photo credit: Lewis Khan/RIBA/PA Wire

The Nazi regime deliberately made Jews appear as ‘the other’, encouraging stereotypical caricatures that demeaned and dehumanised them. In death camps, Nazis stripped away everything physical – prisoners’ clothes, hair, even gold teeth – and tried to strip away their dignity and humanity, too. We...

Dec 7, 2018, 2:33 PM

Seventy years since the world took a stand against genocide

Survivor of the Holocaust, Helen Aronson, speaks at the HMD 2019 reception (Credit HMDT - Via Jewish News)

‘It is vital that we do everything in our power to ensure that these things never happen again, anywhere in the world.’ This comment was made by Helen Aronson, a survivor of the Holocaust. I have had the privilege to work with Helen – a...

Mar 13, 2018, 5:28 PM

Oskar Groening died a guilty man

The fact that Oskar Groening never served his sentence does not negate his guilt, but it is frustrating for so many of us who wanted to see a measure of justice for his actions in enabling the Holocaust. Groening was convicted of being an accessory...

Jan 18, 2018, 1:37 PM

This HMD, consider the power words possess

Of all the horrific aspects of the Holocaust, I always think the speed with which it came about is one of the most terrifying. In 1931, would any German – Jew or non-Jew – have thought that within 10 short years there would be ghettoes...

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About Me

Olivia is the Chief executive, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust