Holocaust Memorial Day: a Kirkcaldy tribute that says ’this is a safe place’

On day three we visited the Holocaust Memorial Centre. It was an immersive experience, taking visitors to the tight knit Jewish communities, displaying photos, glasses, and jewellery from soldiers marching families to the Budapest Ghetto then Auschwitz. There was an eerie audio of haunting footsteps I can still imagine.

That night I had a nightmare as I saw myself hiding in covers imagining those scary footsteps taking me away from my home, a glimpse, for a second of the horror they faced.

In a week where we’ve witnessed a nazi salute, a Bishop asking for mercy for the vulnerable and executive orders from President Donald Trump limiting the freedoms of the many, I remembered this trip. I wondered if this is what life was like in the 1930s when Hitler and Mussolini came to power in Europe.

What I remember most about that day is the silence. The room of empty glass chairs with smiling photos of adults and children who were murdered and the pin drop echo in a beautiful building. It is filled with visitors, yet no one spoke. No words were adequate enough to fill the silence.

So, I did what I do in those moments, I returned to my Lang Toun roots. On the way to Kirkcaldy Galleries for my usual - a seat, with notebook and coffee - I walked past a carved, wooden sculpture in the memorial gardens. Unveiled in 2007 by our own Gordon Brown, it is a collaboration between the pupils from three Fife high schools who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2005 which was brought to life by students from Adam Smith College. A lasting memorial as a sign of respect for all victims of the Holocaust and genocide challenging racism and intolerance.

Kirkcaldy, whilst not perfect by any means, tries to be accepting and welcoming.

Our community is filled with stories of ideas that are encouraged and supported. Do you want to start a support group to help local folk? Here is a room, we can offer tea and bacon rolls. The Mind Over Matter Youth Hub is a great idea, I know someone who could use this.

That’s before I mention our spaces including The Hive, The Polish Club, Fife Migrants Forum, community centres at Linton Lane and Kirkcaldy YMCA and many open doors to those who need it.

The upsetting news in the last few days about the fire raising of wreaths at the memorial sparked disbelief but also hope in the form of local support and companies offering a free clean-up. Despite the apparent world chaos, we’ve got something special in our town and in times of crisis, we are there for each other, having a natter about it and respecting our differences even with a wee bit of ruffled feathers on the way there.

The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau is being observed on Monday, (January 27). The sculpture in the memorial gardens in the shape of a doorway and has symbols carved into it from a language created across Europe and America in the 1930s and 1940s. The symbols tell others: "This is a safe place".

Yes, Kirkcaldy, I believe we are.