News Release

Young Church Member Speaks at Holocaust Memorial Day Service

Owen Silsby gives his address at the Holocaust Memorial Day Service
Owen Silsby gives his address at the Holocaust Memorial Day Service
Owen Silsby gives his address at the Holocaust Memorial Day Service© 2023 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Owen Silsby, a year 11 student and member of the Poole Ward (congregation) of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was nominated by his bishop, Jordan Travers to participate in this
year’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day Service at the Poole Lighthouse Theatre.

Because of a previous successful interfaith event, Lynda Ford-Horne, Chair of the Bournemouth and
Poole Holocaust Memorial Day Committee asked if a young person from the Church would be willing
to do a reading for the service.

She explained, “The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Service is ‘Ordinary People’ and we
want ordinary people who do good works to take part.”

A short portfolio of each of the seven young ‘ordinary people’ selected was projected at the back of
the stage. For Owen, it described him as being a student who, “loves parkour, history, Greek
mythology, Business studies, and is a keen Xboxer. Owen is president of his Young Men’s group at
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helping various communities and does charity work. “

Owen spoke before an audience of about three hundred people saying, “We value the sacrifices of
those who risked their lives to protect or rescue victims as a touchstone of the human capacity of
good in the face of evil.”

The main speaker at this event was Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines who shared her story of survival
after coming to the UK on the last Kindertransport train from Prague on 31 July 1939.

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