BBC marks Holocaust memorial commemorations with film made by former Commonweal pupil

By Barrie Hudson - 27 January 2022

Community

A documentary film screened by the BBC ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day was made by a man who spent much of his childhood in Swindon and Purton.

The late acclaimed documentary-maker Luke Holland, who died aged 71 in 2020, spent the last eight years of his life gathering material for Final Account, which was screened yesterday - 26 January - ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, which was marked around the world today.

His mother had been a Jewish refugee from Vienna whose family were murdered in the Holocaust.

Mr Holland, who attended Commonweal School, was a sibling of Matt Holland, best known in Swindon as the driving force behind the town's acclaimed annual festival of literature and organiser of Swindon's Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration.

Matt Holland said: "The documentary film Final Account comprises interviews with the last living generation of Hitler's Third Reich. They look back on their lives, and actions. 

"What they have to say raises key questions about authority, conformity, obedience, national identity, and people’s roles in the decisions and directions taken by their own government, questions that may still be relevant today. 

"This film, made by someone who spent part of his boyhood in Purton and Swindon,  certainly has relevance to Holocaust Memorial Day." 

Holocaust Memorial Day was again marked in Swindon, although because of the pandemic there was a virtual ceremony rather than the customary live ceremony by the Cenotaph.

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2022 is One Day, and its aim is for people to come together to remember and reflect on genocides the world over: the Nazi persecutions and killings, and those that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.  

Holocaust Memorial Day was first marked nationally in 2001, and is now established as an annual day of remembrance. Local authorities, faith and community groups and individuals were asked to take a lead in developing local memorial events and appropriate activities. 

In Swindon, with the support of Swindon Borough Council, it has been marked every year since its inception.

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