Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 in Geneva with Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss

My late father, Belsen liberator Leonard Berney, found talking about Belsen very painful immediately after the war. My mother tells me it was a totally taboo subject at home.

Luckily for him, and us, about 40 years after the war ended, he started to talk about it. I assume he found the experience cathartic because he talked about it increasingly as the years went by. I remember him first telling me about it, and my realisation that he had played a pivotal role in a very important moment in history, albeit a highly unpleasant and traumatic one for all concerned.

He eventually wrote a book about his experience at Belsen; his account of the camp's liberation, called Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account. He also started to deliver lectures about his experience and even appeared in two very important Holocaust documentaries in which he was interviewed about liberating the camp: Night Will Fall and No Asylum.

I noticed that, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, a screening of No Asylum (which is about Anne Frank's father's struggle and ultimate failure to get his family out of Holland as the war was approaching) was taking place in Geneva. So I contacted the producer of the documentary, Paula Fouce to ask if I could attend, as Geneva is only a one-hour flight away for me. She told me that the screening would be attended by Eva Schloss, Anne Frank's step sister, who herself was an Auschwitz survivor. Paula also told me that the day after the screening, there would be a special Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the United Nations General Assembly Hall during which Eva would give an account of her experience before, during and after her time in Auschwitz.

It was such an honour for me to be part of the screening and ceremony and to meet Eva, Paula and all concerned.

Here are a few photos of my time in Geneva for Holocaust Memorial Day.

With Paula Fouce, producer of No Asylum

With Her Excellency Aviva Raz Shechter, Permanent Representative of Israel
to the United Nations Office at Geneva

With Eva Schloss and her grandson Eric Schloss

Showing Eva and Eric Schloss dad's book
Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account

Couldn't help noticing that the carper of the cinema was the same as appears in
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining!

A video message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

Eva Schloss giving her keynote address

Former laureates of the Menuhin Competition, violinists Dmitry Smirnov and Anne Luisa Kramb
with pianist Gordon Black, Artistic Director of the Menuhin Competition performing
J.S. Bach, Bloch and Bartók

Everybody wanted a piece of Eva!

Joe Stevens, Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce under the
magnificent United Nations emblem

In front of the iconic Allée des Nations, United Nations Office at Geneva

References:

• Highlight of the week: #Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss showing her prisoner number from concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooed on her arm. Schoolchildren from the Geneva area came to the Palais des Nations to listen to her story. https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/960168569496469506
• Anne Frank’s childhood friend says world still hasn’t learned about genocide | UN News http://ow.ly/5Hjd30in5Po
• 2018 International Holocaust Remembrance Day http://ow.ly/4jIx30in60f

• No Asylum: The Untold Chapter in Anne Frank’s Story | Ciné-ONU http://ow.ly/AbIl30in6ev
• Musical #violin performance during  #HolocaustRememberanceDay  @UNGeneva by former Menuhin Competition laureates: Anne Luisa Krumb, Dimitry Smirnov, accompanied on piano by Gordon Back https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/958116817993641984
• United Nations News: Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank has a message for the world about genocide: “We haven’t really learned.” https://www.facebook.com/UN.News.Centre/posts/10155430983106872
• Ciné-ONU #Geneva screening documentary film “No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of #AnneFrank Story,” with Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce. https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/957622069730127872
• Remembrance & Beyond: Eva Schloss at the United Nations – Reimagine Earth http://ow.ly/CVK130in6Rx by Eric Schloss, Eva Schloss's grandson

Our Visit to Charlie Chaplin's World, Geneva

Gemma on our way into Chaplin's World, Geneva

While in Geneva for Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, Gemma and I had the chance to visit Charlie Chaplin's family home which was recently turned into a museum called Charlie Chaplin World. We loved it and felt we had really been invited into his personal life. I found the experience very moving. What a lovely man he was. Here is a selection of photos of our day in Charlie Chaplin's World. www.chaplinsworld.com

Chaplin's World has its very own bus stop 

Manoir de Ban, Charlie Chaplin's family home

Gemma with Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush

Gemma getting a trim from Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator

Gemma with the blind girl in City Lights

The recreation of this scene from The Great Dictator was directly relevant to the
reason we were in Geneva - Holocaust Memorial Day 2018

Charlie Chaplin's tramp costume

With Edna Purviance in The Immigrant

Gemma with Charlie Chaplin in the police station in Modern Times

Gemma breaking out of her prison cell in Modern Times

Gemma on the phone in Modern Times

Gemma in Chalie Chaplin's tramp costume

Gemma in Adenoid Hynkel's costume in The Great Dictator

Gemma as the policeman in Easy Street

Charlie Chaplin's two Oscars

Charlie Chaplin's original hat, cane and boots

Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen Survivor - Classmate of Anne Frank

by Nanette Blitz Konig

On 27th January 2018, Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, Nanette's book "Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen Survivor - Classmate of Anne Frank" was released.

My connection with Nanette is through my late father, Belsen liberator, Leonard Berney. As described in her book, it was my father who helped Nanette recover from the terrible ordeal she had just been through of being a prisoner in the most inhospitable conditions imaginable, losing all members of her family (except her two aunts in London), disease and malnutrition. On page 85, she writes:

"I have thankful, tender recollections of that man. After all, as a member of the British Army, he saved my life. He was one of those who entered the camp to free us, who were shocked and had compassion for our predicament - innocent people who had been subjected to the worst punishments. On top of that, he wrote letters to help me communicate with my family. That was the first time someone offered me any help in months. It was a good feeling to remember that there were still good people in the world."

And Nanette appears in my father's 2015 book "Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account" in that she wrote one of the Forewords of the book.

Nanette, in fact, published her book in Brazilian Portuguese some time ago (she lives in São Paulo), but was keen to get it published in English. So she and her family asked me if I could help make this a reality. By chance, I came across Amsterdam Publishers on Twitter who appeared to be, and have since proved to be, a perfect fit!

Behind the scenes of NexGen's Official Opening by the East Grinstead Town Mayor Video

https://www.nexgendance.co.uk/

Sofia Elias, founder of Nexgen with Cllr Julie Mockford, East Grinstead Town Mayor

Watch the finished product here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt4yNNOWj1s