Hastings Remembers: The local community comes together for a heartfelt Holocaust memorial service

Organised by the Hastings Jewish Community, the 90-minute service titled 'Bridging Generations' featured powerful musical and written performances by Tamara Leggett, Penelope Chessell and Isla McLeod. A representative from the Royal Sussex Regiment closed the service by lowering a flag while The Last Post was sounded.

Mike Levy, from Hastings Jewish Community, said: The theme 'Bridging Generations' is a call to action, a reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn't end with the survivors, but lives on through their children, their grandchildren, and through all of us.

"As the years pass, we are growing more distant in time from the Holocaust. The distance brings a risk as fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors are alive, and memory fades. Bridging Generations highlights the crucial role of the next generation in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and carrying it forward as both commemoration and warning."

This service centred around an incredibly moving talk by Eva Clarke BEM, one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. Eva was born in the notorious Mauthausen Concentration Camp just days before its liberation. She told the story of her mother, Anka Bergman, and her survival against all the odds as a pregnant Jewish woman held prisoner in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps created by the Nazis.

Dany Louise, from Hastings Jewish Community, said: "We're absolutely delighted that Eva Clarke is with us this year, and particularly given that there are far fewer Holocaust survivors alive today, and therefore we are very, very grateful to the next generation of survivors who continue to put huge effort and dedicate their lives towards remembering the dead, but also working to educate future generations."

Eva Clarke, who travelled down from Cambridge, added: It's an honour to be invited to speak. I'm very glad to come to Hastings for the first time. I spoke at Hastings Academy on Friday and had a very positive response. It's essential to keep the memory alive, you know, that is how people live on. It's through honouring them, through remembering them, and bringing their history alive for younger generations."

Hastings and Rye MP Helena Dollimore was also present and addressed the attendees.

She said: "It's important that we remember across all backgrounds, all ages, all walks of life. We also come together to remember the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust. And we also mark other genocides. I believe we also come together today to stand against antisemitism in all of its forms. And I think this year is particularly poignant with the horrendous events that we saw in Manchester, in Sydney and rising antisemitism. As a Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye, I will always stand with our community. I will stand against antisemitism and persecution in all forms."