On Friday 8 January 2015, students from local schools and other representatives from the community were invited to join our students to take part in our Holocaust Memorial Day commemorative event, held in the Prospect Theatre.

The aim of this event was to educate Year 10 and 11 students from Cove School, Weydon School and Farnham Heath End School about the Holocaust through the recounting of personal accounts and to encourage students to return to their own schools with ideas about how they can both inform and educate their peers about the Holocaust.

This event concluded the four-part course ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ provided by the Holocaust Educational Trust and undertaken by four students from the College in November last year. The final stage of the course requires students to put on an event that teaches lessons and takes action.

The Mayor of Rushmoor, Martin Tennant, welcomed all the students and speakers to the event.

Students Barnabas Balint, a Youth Champion for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Charlie Crumpton and Jamie Wilson, then gave what was a difficult presentation about their experiences from their recent visit to Auschwitz. Their presentation focussed on the human aspect of what happened there and the importance of remembering every individual who was killed or survived.

The guest speaker for the event was John Dobai, who is a Holocaust survivor. John spoke about his childhood and the history of Hungary, before detailing the Nazis occupation of his hometown and how his family were eventually liberated by the Russian army.

John said, “Even though more than seventy years have passed the memory and the profound sense of loss remains. The wrongdoing due to racial discrimination continues. The example of Raoul Wallenberg, who did not stand by, continues to shine.”

After speaking, John was asked questions about his family and the behaviour of others towards him at the time. Representatives from the three schools then read pieces suggested by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Following the event, students were asked to fill out pledges of how they could incorporate what they had learnt from the event into their own lives.

The pledges read:

“Never forget”

“Stand up to discrimination”

“I pledge to let others know”

“I pledge to spread the word about HMD”

"To remember and share the stories I have heard"

Jessica Benham, Outreach Officer from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, who attended the event said, “I want to congratulate Barnabas for all of his hard work organising this incredibly moving and inspiring event for Holocaust Memorial Day. Barnabas is one of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s Youth Champions – young people committed to learning lessons from the past to help create a safer, better future. I’d like to encourage any young people who believe that the Holocaust and subsequent genocides should be commemorated to join HMDT’s Youth Champion programme, so they can play their part in ensuring that the lessons from the past are not forgotten or trivialised and develop useful skills and experience in the process.”

A2 History student Barnabas Balint, who organised the event said, “Speaking with students after the event and reading the pledges that they wrote on their way out have confirmed that it was a truly worthwhile experience, one that they have all learned from and been inspired to change their perspectives. One strong message goes home with all who attended: we must never stand by.” Barnabas has written a piece about the day which can be found here.

Holocaust Memorial Day falls on 27 January and is a day for everyone to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. The theme for this year’s day is ‘Don’t Stand By’ and is the 71^st anniversary of the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial Day is supported by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, an independent charity founded and funded by the UK Government to encourage and inspire individuals and organisations across the UK to play their part in learning lessons from the past and creating a safer, better future.