Senior School

Year 11 History Excursion

On Tuesday the 4th of June our Year 11 20th Century History students attended an all-day excursion to the Shrine of Remembrance and the Holocaust Centre.

We began our day at the Shrine of Remembrance. Students had the opportunity to explore the museum, with a particular focus on revising and building their understanding of World War II and the impact it had on the world. Many of our students were able to locate relatives on the shrine’s interactive memorial board and our students spoke with staff about particular artefacts on display. Students had the opportunity to engage with the special exhibition ‘The Korean war 1950-53’ which directly relates to content we will encounter in Unit 2.  We also visited the sanctuary and heard the last post.

We then travelled to the Holocaust Centre in Elsternwick. Our visit to the centre included a talk that aligned with our study of inter-war Germany in Unit 1. We were shown the museum by volunteers, all of whom are descendants of Holocaust survivors. Some of our students spoke with the daughter of Chaim Sztajer, who was a survivor of the concentration camp Treblinka and she shared his story and showed us the model of the camp that he built after his emigration to Australia. A real highlight of the day was our conversation with Henri Korn. Henri is a German Jew who was born in Frankfurt in 1929. He talked to us about being kicked out of school and being bullied because he was Jewish as well as being forced to flee Germany because of the persecution he was facing. His story of escape, survival and the kindness of strangers and neighbours was incredibly powerful. The overall message was to speak out about injustice and to never be a bystander.

I would like to thank Henri and the team at the Holocaust Centre Elsternwick for an incredible and humbling experience. I would also like to thank our wonderful Year 11 students for representing Doncaster Secondary College with maturity and pride and Mr Dunn for driving the bus.

Anna Ditchburn

English, History & Psychology Teacher

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