Helen Stone is a founder member and Associate Director of Generation 2 Generation, an organisation that trains the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to tell their family stories. She is one of Generation 2 Generation’s 41 speakers.

Helen was a secondary school teacher for many years and at her retirement was Head of English at a Pupil Referral Unit in the London Borough of Brent.  She currently teaches English as a second language to refugees and asylum seekers for New Citizens’ Gateway, a charity based in Barnet, north-west London.

For the past ten years, she has been speaking to school groups, colleges, government departments, communal events, in libraries and in prisons, about her late mother, Emmy Golding, who came to England as a Jewish refugee from Germany in May 1939.

Emmy was interviewed in 1996 as part of the project sponsored by Stephen Spielberg to capture the memories of survivors and refugees before they passed away.  Clips from this interview form an integral part of Helen’s presentation.

Speaking ahead of her trip to Jersey next month, Helen said: “I’m delighted and honoured to have been asked to be the speaker at the Jersey HMD ceremony. I visited Jersey for the first time in the summer of 2024 and was struck by the strong sense of independence and freedom that seems to permeate the Island. The Jersey people clearly showed great courage and resilience in the face of German occupation and are rightly proud of this. My mother Emmy Golding’s story of her escape from Germany provides an echo of these qualities and I look forward to sharing it. She died 15 years ago aged 96 but would have been so thrilled to know that her story is living on and being passed down to subsequent generations in wide-flung parts of the country.”

HMD is a time to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and millions more people murdered through the Nazi persecution of other groups. It also marks the more recent genocides recognised by the UK government, as well as the genocide in Darfur. The local commemoration will take place in the Occupation Tapestry Gallery at the Maritime Museum and at the Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay. The ceremony is delivered for the Office of the Bailiff by Jersey Heritage in partnership with Jersey Jewish Congregation, Jersey Arts Centre and the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

While she is in Jersey, Helen will also be visiting the Island’s secondary schools to share her mother’s story with young Islanders and appearing at Jersey Arts Centre.

One of the organisers of the local HMD commemoration is Chris Addy, Jersey Heritage’s WWII Fortifications Curator. He said: “Helen Stone’s work to share her mother’s Holocaust story ties in perfectly with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s theme for 2026 – Bridging Generations – which is a reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn’t end with the survivors, it lives on through their children and grandchildren, and through all of us. As we come to the end of the Liberation 80 year and prepare for the 2026 HMD ceremony, we reflect upon the importance of remembering the numerous Islanders and thousands of forced and enslaved labourers who, among others, were local victims of Nazi persecution, and for whom multiple generations of descendants will lay wreaths on 27 January”.

  • Jersey’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration takes place at 1pm on Tuesday, 27 January 2026 in the Occupation Tapestry Gallery at the Maritime Museum and at the Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
  • ‘An Audience with Helen Stone’ is at 8pm on Tuesday, 27 January 2026 at Jersey Arts Centre. Tickets will be available from the Jersey Arts Centre Box Office in the New Year.