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Please bear with us while this section is updated. 17.25 04/02/08

Holocaust Memorial Day Luncheon

Business community come out in force

to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

600 of London’s most prominent business people took time out from their hectic schedules to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at the Anne Frank Trust’s sixth annual lunch on Thursday 31^st January.  The lunch, at the Hilton on Park Lane, was hosted by Mrs Daphne Schild for the fifth year running.

Among those that took part in the solemn memorial candle lighting ceremony were Mark Goldfinger, a Holocaust survivor from Rabka in Poland, who now lives in Bournemouth, and Reverend Werner Oder, whose father and uncle were prominent SS members. 

Both Werner’s father and uncle helped run the notorious Einzatsgruppen training school in Rabka, where SS members were taught to be immune to the agonised cries of their victims.   Werner was born after the war and brought up in a virulently anti-Semitic household, but as a teenager he rejected his family’s views and went on to become a Church minister. 

Having moved to Dorset, Werner read about Mark’s experiences and the loss of his family in the Holocaust in his local newspaper.  He called Mark and when he introduced himself, Mark simply said, “ Oder, I think I know who your father was.” 

Mark and Werner have now spoken together to schools about their pasts. 

Guests also heard the BBC’s creative director, Alan Yentob, announce the forthcoming brand new drama series on Anne Frank, due to be screened on prime time BBC1 over five consecutive night.  

Guests at the lunch included opera singer Natasha Marsh, Goldman Sachs co-Chief Executive Michael Sherwood, Consensus Busines Group owner Vincent Tchenguiz and fund manager Nicola Horlick. 

For more information call Paul Tyack at The Anne Frank Trust on 020 7284 5858