Remembering the past is remembering the future. Many of us do not remember the war years where people were sacrificed to make life better for us and those not borne by the end of the Second World War. I was a fifties bairn. By the time I was a teenager the war was a story, from long ago.
This is my main motivation for supporting AJEX in marching on Sunday 16th November – although Alan Solomon would say, my marching needs weekly practice. It does not matter and the memorial is to remember those who lost their lives. The Chief Rabbi officiates and brings the past up to the present, 80 years on. A few of us march under the Stoke on Trent banner, which is heartwarming, as that community no longer has youngsters who can travel to London. It is a mitzvah and holding the banner at the march past, shows the reviewing officer that people remember the past and that even small communities can be represented, remembering in some cases the larger communities of the 1940’s. Migration has made some of these small communities become just a memory.   It is an honour for me to be at the memorial and whilst our platoon march round the Cenotaph, we often see members of MJC who come out to support the past and keep it going. We will not wave if we see you, but we will smile with appreciation and thanks from the people we are remembering.
I will also be reflecting on a personal basis for family members who perished at the Holocaust and were not saved from death at the hands of the Nazis. My grandfather was one who died in Auschwitz around that date.
Long live the memory of the past and let’s pray for a lasting, peaceful, future.
Edwin Lucas
