Friday January 27 was Holocaust Memorial Day, a national commemoration dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust. With the use of resources from Holocaust Memorial Trust Prince Henry’s students acknowledged and recognised the importance of the day.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust “helps people to remember the past and empathise with people today and take action for a better future.”
With resources that focussed on the experiences of Holocaust survivors and victims of Genocide today through the lens of ‘Ordinary People’ students were able to engage and take time to reflect on individuals who may have been Bystanders or up standers thus leading them to consider the possible choices they too might have made. Students were able to hold meaningful and empathetic conversations in a mature and sensitive manner demonstrating their engagement and consideration of the real experiences of those whose testimony they were shown.
Here are some reflections from students in Year 12 in light of this:
“History is there for us to learn from our mistakes – the Holocaust is very important to learn from to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
“It was eye opening to hear first-hand what it was like from the perspective of a Survivor”
“Learning about the Holocaust is important because we need to recognise the suffering of those affected as well as recognise how and why something like that could happen. The video was useful because it showed the experiences of Holocaust survivors as well as people affected by other genocides like in Sudan. Being educated on this and acknowledging what happened hopefully would prevent something like that happening again and build more awareness of the genocide that are currently happening in China and Mayan war.”
For a number of years, the school has engaged with the Holocaust Education Trust and worked in coordination with the Trust through their educational programmes.
This includes each year, students and staff from the school, visiting the site of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp with students following this visit feeding back their experience to the wider student body.
Additionally, Year Ten GCSE History students while on the Berlin Trip, visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as well as the Jewish Museum.
While in Berlin students also visit the site of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, here students learn about many of the Nazi atrocities which took place during the 1930’s and 1940’s.