Racism Rights and Reconciliation

Year 10 Racism Rights and Reconciliation

As part of our curriculum for our year 10 Racism Rights and Reconciliation class, we visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in May. In preparation for our trip to the museum, I gave some brief lectures regarding the questions our students might ask. 

The Tarneit Senior students were very well prepared and answered all of the questions correctly during the informative session presented by the Holocaust survivors at the museum. 

Additionally, our students participated in a volunteer activity provided by the centre. Through this activity, the students were tested on their knowledge of Holocaust history. All of our students did an excellent job answering every single question correctly in the Holocaust activity, which I am proud of.

Three other schools were also at the Holocaust museum that day, but our students took the challenge to consider and reflect on the following question:

 'How was the holocaust humanly possible?'

At the bottom of this sentence were three questions with some subcategories : 

First question: How did the holocaust happen? Deception- Starvation - Dehumanisation

Second question: How did people survive? Acts of courage - survival against the odds - Resistance

Third question: 

What was the impact after liberation ? 

Loss - Return to life 

After completing the above activity, the students met a Holocaust Survivor and listened to his story of surviving the concentration camps. Students had the opportunity to ask questions of him and start a conversation in order to understand his feelings. 

One of our students asked a question that impressed the survivor and led to a lengthy discussion. 

The question:

Being a survivor and having lived with all these memories for all these years, may I ask you to explain your ideology in regards to the dehumanisation happening around the globe today? 

In response to this question, an interesting discussion ensued about how Holocaust Survivors survived the war and particularly the concentration camps. 

Before we left the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, students wrote their own message regarding their feelings and wishes for the survivors. 

On the excursion day, our students showed respect and complied with school expectations at all times.

Sofia Koktzidis

Humanities/VCAL Teacher