January 2009

To mark Holocaust Memorial day, the Humanities department organised a day of special events and activities for all year 8 students to participate in.

The day was spent attending seminars about the Holocaust, looking at areas such as what the Holocaust actually was, why the Jews were chosen, how the Nazis used basic ideas about racism to persecute minority groups, and how similar events are still taking placing today, principally in Rwanda.

The day concluded with a talk to all of year 8 by Eva Clarke, who was born in 1945 travelling on a train between Auschwitz and Mauthausen, both concentration camps. Her whole family except her mother were murdered during the war because they were Jewish. Her mother, Anka Bergman, had kept her pregnancy secret for eight months in Auschwitz and weighed just 5 stone when she gave birth to Eva. This was a truly harrowing story and really personalised the day for all those involved.

The day was followed up within Homebase lessons, where students learned about the Holocaust.