BOOK TICKETS:
Thur 27th Jan 17:45
This is a pay what you feel event.
Thursday 27th Jan is Holocaust Memorial Day.
Brewery Arts Kendal are holding a special screening of ‘The Donkey Field’, presented by artist and director Sarah Dobai.
The film is based on an account of an antisemitic attack on a young boy in Budapest in 1944 in an area locally known as The Donkey Field, following the impact that discrimination, persecution and displacement has on him and his family.
It will be introduced by Trevor Avery, director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, and Sarah Dobai. Sarah’s father John Dobai, who as a boy survived the persecution and killing of Jews in Budapest in 1944, will join for Q&A after the film.
We are supporting the screening alongside Northumbria University, Arts Council England, The Elephant Trust and University of the Arts, London.
Holocaust Memorial Day is all the more poignant this year as evidence shows that the pandemic has led to a rise in anti-semitism, with statistics showing it more than doubled in Cumbria last year. In fact, in June 2021 there was antisemitic graffiti painted onto the outer walls of Carlisle Castle, and Lake District Holocaust Project have reported an increase of antisemitic messaging with attacks on the rise.
Parallels have been drawn worldwide between antisemitic conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and war time propaganda around the Jewish communities.
“an entry point (to antisemitism) has come with the pandemic and the anti-vaccination movement where the language is not explicitly anti-Jewish…It means that a lot of people are at risk of getting sucked in,” David Rich, Director at the Community Security Trust (CST).
To put it simply, conspiracy theories can act as a gateway to far more extreme views.
As the number of Holocaust survivors diminishes every year, we must make greater efforts to elevate the truth and take forward the important lessons from the Holocaust.
In times like these it isn’t enough to not be racist.
We must be actively anti-racist, and stand up against hate.
