Holocaust Memorial DaySunday 27th January 2013

“The one who does not remember History is bound to live through it again” George Santayana

Tom

Who here has a house key on them today?

The concept of a key

The concept of a keyA key is such a normal, simple item.

A persons house key is specific to them and whoever they share their house with.

They can be personalised with a key chain or ring; they represent individuality.

People who carry their keys are expecting to use them again in the future.

Keys can be used to unlock a number of things.

There was a key for this gate for example. It is the gate to one of Adolf Hitler’s most infamous concentration camps; Aushcwitz-Birkenau.

By using letters of invitation, the Nazis made the Jews believe that they were going to start a new life in a better place.

However, just as you left your house this morning, with the expectation of returning, so did many of the people who were sent to Auschwitz because they took their house keys with them.

It soon became clear to the prisoners of Auschwitz that a prosperous new life was not what was awaiting them at the other sides of the haunting gates, as their house keys and other possessions were taken off them forever.

Joe

• On arrival at the camps, their possessions were then taken or stripped off them.

• They were either sent immediately to the gas chambers, or registered as a prisoner and worked to death.

• Here are some more pictures from Auschwitz showing you how the Jews were stripped of everything.

Suitcases

Glasses

Shoes

Brushes

Human Hair

My keyHas lost its house.

I walk from house to house

But none fits.

I’ve foundThe locksmith.

My key fitsInto his grave.

‘My Key’Mein Schlussel

The concept of a key

The concept of keys is symbolic of how the victims of Auschwitz were stripped of everything most common-day people take for granted.

This included any remote sense of individuality, comfort or safety.

The concept of a key

Sophie

Why are we telling you about the

Holocaust?

Lessons from Auschwitz ProjectSince 1999, thousands of students and teachers have taken part in the Holocaust Educational Trust's ground breaking Lessons from Auschwitz Project.

It aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust for young people and to clearly highlight what can happen if prejudice and racism become acceptable.

We went on one of the visits to Auschwitz in November 2012.

Based on the idea that 'hearing is not like seeing’, the project includes a visit to the former Nazi extermination and

concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Holocaust

• The Holocaust was Adolf Hitler’s overall plan to exterminate anyone who did not fit into his ideal ‘master’ race.

• This included all Jews as well as countless numbers of other ‘undesirables’ such as Catholics, Jehovah’s witnesses, political opponents of the Nazis, homosexuals, gypsies and mentally / physically disabled people.

• Most of the people he planned on killing were sent to a Polish concentration camp and forced to either work or die or both.

Statistics- By the end of the war in 1945, over 6 million Jews

had been killed by the Nazis in what is now referred to as the Holocaust.

- 1.5 million of all deaths were children

- Around 600 thousand Jews survived.

- That roughly equates to a 10% chance of survival.

- It also means that the average survivor had to witness at least 9 deaths.

Rachel

Photograph room at Auschwitz Museum today

Everyone in this room believes that at some point they will be going home. After visiting Auschwitz we found out many of the victims of the holocaust believed the same thing.

Not knowing where they were going but having hope that at some point they would be returning home was the reason some of

the survivors are still here today.

The Holocaust is always shown in such massive statics that it is difficult to imagine the full scale of what happened. Hearing the

figure ‘6 million people’ is very difficult to imagine.

However, just like everyone in this room, each and every victim of the Holocaust

believed they were special in their own way.

This makes it even more difficult to believe that the Nazis would do everything in their power to strip back these beliefs until their victims were longer seen as human beings;

instead simply a number or a statistic.

Yet it is important to know that every victim of the Holocaust was a human being

and had their own personal traits and characteristics that made them special.

Tom

Hierarchy of Human Needs

Happiness, acceptance, sense of achievement

Human Rightsand Human Happiness

• The Nazis took away their victims’ happiness, their family networks, their security and, eventually, their basic human needs.

• This carried on for almost a decade.

• Other human beings around the world let this happen.

Joe

First they came for the Communists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,and there was no one left to speak for me.

MARTIN NIEMÖLLER

Sophie

Holocaust Memorial DaySunday 27th January 2013

“The one who does not remember History is bound to live through it again” George Santayana

Relevance to the world in which we live today…

• At present, the global total of misplaced people due to conflict is 26,400,000.

• This includes Syria; a country that has featured heavily in recent news programmes and newspapers. Due to political and ethnic conflicts, the total of misplaced people in Syria is currently up to 2 million and counting.

• These figures should encourage us to be more understanding of the refugees and asylum seekers that seek safety in our country today.

Rachel

• The 27th of January is the date we remember the victims of the Holocaust because this is the date that Auschwitz, the most notorious of all the death camps, was eventually liberated in 1945.

• To amount the number of deaths in Auschwitz, we would have to experience 9/11 every hour for 5 years.

• To remember everyone who died in Auschwitz (which was only one of many death camps) we would have to stay silent every minute for 3 years.

So, when you open your front door and step inside your house tonight….

Please take a moment to think how lucky you are to be home.