Behrmann Lecture 2020

Standing Together

The 2020 Behrmann lecture, given in memory of OP Josef Behrmann (1939) was delivered on 12 February, on the theme of ‘Standing Together’, in line with the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Y11 pupil Robert Rayner gives his thoughts on the lecture:

As the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was fresh in collective memory, the theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was ‘Standing Together’. The speakers, Patrick Moriarty, ordained priest in the CofE and Headteacher of the Jewish School JCoSS in Barnet, and Andrew Sawczenko, Consultant Paediatrician and second generation survivor, delivered two very different, yet enlightening testimonies.

Delivered in the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre, Dr Sawczenko told his mother’s story for the very first time. It was an evocative testimony of how his mother, a Polish Jew residing in the 30% Jewish city of Przemyśl survived the holocaust. A tale of endeavour and endurance, then aged six, his mother and her family escaped to the Soviet-controlled zone as Germany began to repress Przemyśl’s Jews, eventually forcing them into sealed ghettos before taking them to extermination camps.

Dr Sawczenko explained how, even when in the USSR, they had not escaped the last of their persecution: Poles who refused to take Soviet citizenship were banished to gulags (hard labour camps). His grandparents both died of starvation in one such gulag in Siberia, leaving his mother and aunt orphaned. They then spent much of World War Two at another camp in Kazakhstan.

The audience was guided through Dr Sawczenko’s own reunion with his mother’s story, in following her footsteps as one of the small minority of Jews who decided to return to Przemyśl. His mother and aunt were among those as they were sent to an orphanage in the city.

Reverend Moriarty gave a thought-provoking response to this testimony. He delivered his own advice towards how Christians can truly ‘Stand Together’, and minimise the impact of anti-Semitism, stemming from the Jewish teaching that one ‘can’t forgive for others’. He detailed how pervasive anti-Semitic prejudice is in our institutions, notably the military industrial complex, and the looming threat of populism.

Reverend Moriarty expanded on this with four suggestions to avoid ‘unhealthy tribalism’, and further disaster:

• Respectful silence; giving space for mourning and processing of collective trauma • Embrace difference; talking about and celebrating difference between groups • Build trust; ensuring diverse friendships and relationships, rooted in mutual trust • Sharing; spreading our own experiences and narratives, in trust

I found the lectures incredibly interesting. Dr Sawczenko’s mother’s story served to further extend my own understanding and knowledge of the horror of the Holocaust, and Reverend Moriarty’s response was enlightening in its sensitive approach to healing from trauma and moving towards a more equal society.

ANDREW SAWCZENKO (CENTRE LEFT) AND PATRICK MORIARTY (CENTRE RIGHT) WITH PERSE STAFF AND PUPILS AHEAD OF THE 2020 BEHRMANN LECTURE.