Year 10 Holocaust Institute Visits

During Term 3, Year 10 students visited the Holocaust Institute in their House groups to help broaden their knowledge of this time in history, and reflect on the role of conscience, freedom and moral responsibility in people’s lives. The boys were presented the historical context of the Holocaust through a presentation including the use of multi-media clips.  

Amongst other questions they were asked to consider ideas that made the historical event more personal: What do these people look like? What are they doing? What do you imagine your great grandparents doing? We witnessed people dancing, partying, sharing food, celebrating the lives of new babies and going to work or school, perfectly normal and humanising actions. These questions and other activities were aimed at preventing the victims of Nazi Germany being seen as a mere statistic and rather as a human person whose treatment and perhaps death had a profound impact on others. 

A powerful experience was when students were asked to pick up and read cards that had been placed under their chairs. These were the stories of children who had been victims of the holocaust. Several boys volunteered to read their stories out and it was this moment that helped them to realise the Holocaust is something important to remember, to learn about and to try to prevent from happening again. Other activities included planning what they would take if they were to be a refugee and had limited space as well as deciding on what mattered most to them from a list including to live where you like, to marry who you want and to be recognised as a citizen of a country.

To finish the excursion, the boys witnessed a testimony from a holocaust survivor or the family members of one. Hearing these stories and the way that the survivors felt so positively about Australia as the nation who took them in after the war was very moving.

Tom Voakes

Head of Religious Education