Children from sixth class at Hansfield Educate Together School join grandchild of Holocaust survivor for Holocaust Memorial Day

(Pictured above: Children from Hansfield Educate Together National School, Dublin 15, were left to right, Riyan Indhayare, Caryna Camerino, a. grandchild of a Holocaust surviver and Eltayeb Ahmed. Picture credit: Tommy Clancy)

Children from sixth class at Hansfield Educate Together School in Dublin 15, joined Caryna Camerino, the grandchild of Holocaust survivor, Enzo Camerino to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day, which took place on Thursday January 27.

Enzo Camerino and his family were taken from their home in Rome on 16 October 1943.

The day he arrived Auschwitz was the last time he ever saw his mother, sister and uncle.

The number 158509 was tattooed in blue on his arm when he got off the cattle car.

After more than a year in the camp, his father collapsed and died in front of him, from overwork and exposure.

Enzo and his brother, Luciano, escaped Auschwitz just before its liberation in 1945.

He found his way back to Rome by hitching a ride with a passing truck carrying coffee beans to Italy.

He started life over in Rome, got married, and Caryna’s father, Italo, was born.

He then moved the family to Canada and Caryna came to live in Dublin over 15 years ago and now runs a successful business in Dublin, Camerino Bakery.

Over 1.5 million Jewish children and hundreds of thousands of other children were victims of Nazi atrocities.

In their memory and to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, over 500 schools and thousands of school children from around Ireland and Europe planted crocus bulbs in the autumn.

The bulbs are now beginning to bloom across Europe in a symbolic statement of remembrance and hope as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day.

The small yellow crocus was chosen by Holocaust Education Trust Ireland as a symbol that recalls the yellow Stars of David that Jewish people were forced to wear under Nazi rule.

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth hosted the annual Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust, in Dublin’s Mansion House on Sunday, January 30.

The event took place 80 years after the Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis sanctioned the killing of millions of Jews across Europe, including 4,000 Jewish people who were listed as living in Ireland at the time.

Dublin-based, Holocaust survivor, Suzi Diamond said: “I am concerned that time is passing too quickly for my contemporaries and for me.

“What we experienced took place in the middle of the last century, far too distant for young people today to understand the enormity of what happened.

“Six million Jews murdered because of their faith – more than the population of Ireland!

“I urge young people to speak out about hate speech, about bullying, and about Holocaust denial.

“We implore them to tell our story and keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.”