It was recently Yom Hashoah and in order to commemorate this day, there was an event held at Giffnock Shul,  which I as fortunate enough to attend. This day marks a day of remembrance for the people that died in the Holocaust.  2 school pupils lead the service and we had a Jewish male choir preforming. As the names of all those family members who had been killed were shown on the screen, a man played the violin. There were lots of clips from various Holocaust survivors and we had speeches from special guests, including Ben Helfgot, who is a very well known Holocaust survivor.

6 candles were lit for the 6 million Jews who had died in the War.  Pupils from the school or the local area came up to light 5 candles and then the sixth candle was lit by Ben Helfgot, our special guest.

The  theme of the evening was “from Poland to Windmere”, and his speech told us all about his story and his journey and how he feels about the Holocaust today.

Primary 7 had also been working on a project and had picked a person from the ‘Boys’ to commemorate and make a hand stitched tea towel that were all displayed in the Shul hall.

It was a special day to be a part of.

By Susie Tenby