Last Friday, the whole school gathered for an assembly to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The assembly, run by members of our Jewish Society, provided an opportunity to reflect collectively on the Holocaust, to remember the millions of victims, and to reaffirm the importance of challenging prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.
Building on this shared reflection, our year 9 students attended a workshop as part of our Holocaust Memorial Day programme. The workshop included sessions entitled What Was the Holocaust? and How Could the Holocaust Happen?, in which students explored the complex and overlapping roles of perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders and resisters through real historical case studies.
Students also engaged in a session on Propaganda and Genocide, examining how discriminatory ideas and language can escalate into persecution and violence, and considered the relevance of these lessons in our modern world.
We were incredibly fortunate to welcome Chris Shaw, an accredited Holocaust Educational Trust speaker, to run this workshop. Chris, a multi-award-winning documentary maker and television journalist, shared his second-generation testimony, speaking about the experiences of his mother, Isabel Lowy, a Holocaust survivor whose story he recorded in 1984. His testimony offered students a powerful and deeply thought-provoking insight into the human impact of the Holocaust and the enduring importance of bearing witness.
Throughout the workshop, students engaged with these challenging and often distressing topics with maturity and thoughtfulness. The programme provided an important opportunity for learning and reflection, reinforcing the significance of Holocaust Memorial Day.
