Pupils learn of Holocaust (From Banbury Cake)

Pupils learn of Holocaust

1:00pm Sunday 25th January 2009 in News By Fran Bardsley

Teenagers from Oxfordshire schools were confronted with real-life stories of victims of the Holocaust as part of events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday.

An exhibition telling the life of diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank has been on display at the Oxford Synagogue, and last week pupils from four county schools visited it.

Synagogue president Kathy Shock said: “As a daughter of a Holocaust survivor, I feel this is a powerful way to make it real for people – and to remind us all of the duty of every one of us to stand up for the rights of minority groups to prevent anything of this nature happening again, here or elsewhere in the world.”

Cherwell School, in Oxford, Larkmead School, in Abingdon, Sibford School, in Banbury, and Shellingford Primary School all sent groups of pupils to the synagogue.

Larkmead School head of liberal studies John O’Regan said: “I don’t think they had appreciated just how young Anne Frank was –- she was 13 when she started writing her now famous diary.

“Our aim was to get them to think about the risk of these kind of things happening again and how we can make sure we stand up against prejudice and discrimination.

'Our aim was to get them to think about the risk of these kind of things happening again and how we can make sure we stand up against prejudice and discrimination'

John O'Regan

“I think it is more important than ever to talk about these things, and how even nice people can end up turning against their friends and neighbours.”

Pupil Georgia Ayres, 14, from Abingdon, said she felt moved by the exhibition.

She said: “It was horrible how they treated the Jewish people.

“I felt really sorry for Anne Frank and what she had to go through just to stay alive.”

Jack Garwood, 14, added: “You could almost feel the hate they were feeling against the Germans because of the appalling conditions they had to live under. It was so revealing, you could almost put yourself there and feel how scared they were.”

January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

It will be marked in Oxford with ceremonies at County Hall and the Town Hall, led respectively by Oxfordshire County Council chairman Tony Crabbe and Oxford’s Lord Mayor, Susanna Pressel.

At county hall, a DVD produced by the Holocaust Memorial Trust will be shown, followed by readings from pupils from Banbury School and Larkrise Primary School, and the lighting of commemorative candles, starting at 10am.

Two minutes’ silence will be held at Oxford Town Hall at 11am, and Ms Pressel will give a short reading.

She said: “It is important for all generations to remember the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides.

“We must try to ensure that the millions of innocent people who have been slaughtered did not die wholly in vain, and prove that we have learned from history.”

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk