The Anne Frank Trust to mark Holocaust Memorial Day Order of Ceremony Welcome Tim Robertson, Chief Executive The Anne Frank Trust UK Candle lighting ceremony followed by one minute of reflection led by Jo Coburn MC Candle lighters Annabel Schild Dr Martin Stern Nasser Kurdy Zena Aman Menu Appeal Anne Frank Ambassadors Courgette and roast pepper tart with romesco sauce Shaan, Janiz, Yuri Daniel Mendoza, Chair Blackened salmon with bok choi, chilli, The Anne Frank Trust UK ginger and lemongrass rice Guest speaker Lemongrass, mango and vanilla parfait James O’Brien Coffee and chocolates La Campagne, Chardonnay La Campagne, Cabernet Sauvignon For guests with special dietary requirements or allergies who may wish to know about food ingredients, please ask for a manager. The Anne Frank Trust Annual Lunch 2019 2 Welcome from our host Daphne Schild I am honoured and privileged to once again host the Anne Frank Trust Lunch to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. My beloved husband Rolf Schild hosted the first ever was an entrepreneur; a pioneering inventor lunch in 2003, shortly before his death. I have been of medical equipment; an OBE; and a family man. proud to continue his legacy by supporting the event in his memory in the years since. Of course my husband never forgot the awful hardship and pain of his early years. It lay behind Rolf's involvement with the Trust came about his dedicated support of the Anne Frank Trust, and through his dreadfully sad early experiences: he had of its vital work to instill in young people Anne's escaped Nazi Germany as a child in 1939 but his message of acceptance, social justice and respect LRC are delighted to support parents were sent to the Chelmno Extermination for all. Camp, where they endured terrible suffering and the Anne Frank Trust eventually, in 1942, perished. Today's lunch marks an occasion on which we can reflect on these aspirations, and appreciate both Such was Rolf's courage and spirit that he refused how far the Trust has come since my husband to allow this tragic beginning to define him. He went was first involved, and how very important its work on to live a full and successful life in London: he continues to be. The Anne Frank Trust Annual Lunch 2019 4 Presenter Guest speaker Jo Coburn James O'Brien Jo Coburn is the presenter of BBC2’s new lunchtime show Politics Live which James O’Brien is a journalist, broadcaster and author perhaps best known broadcasts daily Monday to Friday. and admired for his daily phone-in show on LBC. Jo launched the programme in September last year programme, the Six and Ten o'clock news bulletins, The radio show is a platform from which callers There are expressions too of uncertainty in the with a new livelier approach to political discussion. the BBC News Channel and Radio Four. often express views that are discriminatory – book, with James revealing that his own path to Before that as presenter of the flagship Daily Politics seeking to scapegoat minority groups, ‘benefit understanding has at times been illuminated by she covered all the major political events of the last Jo has also written and broadcast two Radio Four scroungers,’ or the EU for their own circumstances callers: in a chapter on feminism he reveals how six years. From the days of the coalition government documentaries including British Jews; Right and Left or the UK’s woes. The great appeal of the show is behaviour he had once considered quite normal to the Scottish and EU referendums, leadership on Archive on Four. that most mornings James can be heard challenging could in fact be subtly diminishing of women. elections, General Elections, and Brexit, it has been those misconceptions and revealing the flawed a truly momentous time to be covering politics. thinking behind them. James’ regular dismantling of common, harmful misconceptions and prejudicial views is an As an experienced political correspondent, she was Such exchanges have been the inspiration behind important contribution to a world in which the afforded a ringside seat during the Blair/Brown James’ recently published book: How to be right narrative of hate is growing. His understanding years, covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and in a world gone wrong, in which he covers themes that no-one can be complacent when it comes to home-grown scandals such as Cash for Honours ranging from Brexit and Islam to LGBT issues discrimination is in line with the Trust’s assertion and MP’s expenses. Jo learned her trade on local and Trump. In each case James outlines the key that we must all, always, be open to learning about commercial radio before joining BBC London as a questions required to reveal the inconsistencies and forms of discrimination that are embedded within political reporter. Since then she has broadcast on double standards that stoke prejudicial sentiment our society and understanding ways in which we can politics for all the major outlets including the Today and expression. challenge them. The Anne Frank Trust Annual Lunch 2019 6 Anne Frank Ambassadors Candle lighters Yuri Nasser Kurdy 16 year old Yuri is from Newcastle where he has recently taken part in the Anne Frank Trust’s Youth Action Project: a Nasser Kurdy is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at South Manchester National Lottery funded initiative that has enabled the Trust, University Hospital who operated on those injured in the bombing that in partnership with organisations on the ground, to expand happened in the city in May 2017. In September of that year he was the its work into the youth and community sector. The YAP gives victim of an unprovoked attack as he walked into the Islamic Cultural young people the opportunity to explore issues of identity Centre in Hale, suffering a near fatal stabbing to the back of his neck. He and community in their own lives, and creatively express responded to his attacker through forgiveness and compassion. Days later their response to Anne's words and her legacy through such the father-of-three from a Syrian-Jordanian family was back at work treating mediums as art, music and songwriting. Yuri has taken part in his patients. Nasser is a much admired and respected member of his local a number of Trust and other projects that draw attention to the community in Hale where he engages and encourages interactions with all issues of discrimination. He is studying A-Levels in Psychology; faith groups. Applied Sciences; and Spanish. Dr Martin Stern Martin Stern was born in the Netherlands in 1938 to a Jewish father and Janiz a non-Jewish mother, both from Berlin. At the age of four, with his father in hiding and following the death of his mother, he was taken in by a 16 year old London school student Janiz became an Anne Frank Dutch couple, Cathrien and Johannes Rademakers, not far from where the Ambassador in 2016. She has since been a vocal and active Frank family were in hiding. Aged five, Martin and his year old sister Erika proponent of Anne’s message of equality and social justice were arrested. The siblings spent time in Westerbork prison camp in the for all. She has written blogs; featured in the Trust’s Netherlands and then Theresienstadt, north of Prague. Taken into the care #shoutdownhate social media campaign film that raised of a Dutch woman in Theresienstadt, they escaped being put on a children’s awareness of the issue of hate crime experienced by young train to Auschwitz. After the war Martin lived for a time on the Merwedeplein people; and most recently delivered a speech to hundreds in Amsterdam, where Anne Frank had lived with her family before going of delegates at the Home Office’s Building a Stronger Britain into hiding – he first learned about her when her diary was read aloud at a Together conference on the subject of countering extremism. school assembly in the early 1950s. Zena Aman Shaan Zena was only 16 when she was forced to flee extreme violence in war-torn Ethiopia. She arrived in Kent a year later after a long and difficult journey Shaan is a bubbly and jovial 15 year old who is passionate – the details of which she does not wish to recall. Her family, including about making the world a better place. He always believes her parents, all either perished in the war or were lost on the journey. She that people progress and work better together. He’s very active arrived in England alone. Volunteers from a local charity in Kent, working in politics, having been a Labour Party member for nearly with the local authorities supported Zena, locating a safe place for her to two years and has taken part in many rallies promoting ‘the live as quickly as they could so that she did not have to sleep rough. betterment of society’. He spends many hours of the day A family in Kent has taken Zena in while she works on her asylum claim, reading the Guardian or looking through political Twitter. The again through a charitable foundation. Relying purely on the kindness of Anne Frank Ambassador programme helped him explore the strangers, Zena has built a new life in England. She attends a church history of injustice, especially the horrors of the Holocaust and and a college where she has connected with the Ethiopian Community. this sprung him into action to do more to bring change for the Zena says she has encountered nothing but warmth and support from better to society. people in England.