International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021

On a cold, damp morning, Holocaust Day was marked in the little Lower Saxony town of Neustadt am Rübenberge. Taking part were members of the Neustadt am Rübenberge Regional History Working Group (Arbeitskreis Regionalgeschichte e.V.), and three members of the Royal British Legion’s Hannover Branch, Andrew Taylor, his son, George, and his daughter, Emma May. The group assembled at the memorial 'Between the Bridges' where, Hubert Brieden, the secretary of the Regional History Working Group placed roses and the Legion representatives placed a traditional Legion wreath of poppies. The red poppy is the Legion's iconic emblem.

The moving tribute is all the more poignant in view of the fact that less than 40 miles away is the site of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was liberated by shocked British troops on 15th April 1945, having been discovered unexpectedly by an SAS officer on a reconnaissance mission. The were several sub-camps for slave labour around nearby Hannover.

A voluntary organisation, the Neustadt am Rübenberge Regional History Working Group, will be commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz with several events, including an exhibition on the history of remembrance in Neustadt ab Rübenberge. Ironically, one of the Auschwitz-Birkenau sub- camps was Nysa (Neustadt in German), a women's work camp established in late September 1944 when about 400 women prisoners were brought from Auschwitz to work in a textile mill.

Stolpersteine are used to
commemorate those that fell victim to
Nazi extermination or persecution.