Holocaust memorial service returns to Lowestoft rail station

Waveney Youth Council representatives lay a wreath by the Kindertransport plaque at Lowestoft rail station in 2023. Picture: Mick Howes (Image: Mick Howes)

Near the spot where hundreds of young Jewish refugees had arrived in 1938, a special service of remembrance to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day will be held on Saturday, January 27 at Lowestoft rail station.

People will gather at 9.45am as the annual service of reflection is held inside the Parcels Office at the town's railway station.

Holocaust Memorial Day in Lowestoft.

The event remembers the Holocaust and the role the town played when 520 Jewish children arrived at Lowestoft station as part of the Kindertransport initiative in December 1938.

The Kindertransport initiative was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi occupied Germany that commenced in November 1938 after the British Government agreed to allow the temporary admission for up to 10,000 unaccompanied children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

With all welcome to attend the annual event - which is organised by Lowestoft Town Council - to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, a town council spokesman said: "The theme this year is ‘Fragility of Freedom’ with the Holocaust Memorial Trust highlighting that ‘freedom’ often means different things to different people.

"Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 also marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

"This commemorative service will aim to highlight this theme with short readings from local schools and short talks followed by the laying of wreaths."

With the service at The Parcels Office held with kind permission from the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and the Lowestoft Central Project, each year the town council organises commemoration events for Lowestoft to "mark Holocaust Memorial Day and to remember the lives lost and affected by genocides around the world."