Headlines - 31Jan25

31st

January 2025

HEADLINES

By James Saunders

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ

January the 27th marks a solemn and significant date: the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. On this day 80 years ago, Soviet soldiers freed the surviving prisoners from the notorious Nazi death camp.

Auschwitz, located in Nazi-occupied Poland, was the largest site of its kind. This was the site of the systematic murder of over 1 million people, most of whom were Jews. Auschwitz was at the center of a network of over 44,000 camps, train stations, ghettos, and other sites of persecution, murder, slave labor, transport, testing and torture. The industrialized mass murder of the Jewish people wiped out what had been a vibrant and established culture for over two thousand years. After just 12 years of Nazi rule, twothirds of the Jewish population of Europe had been murdered. Hundreds of thousands of Sinti-Roma people, Poles, Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others also met the same horrific fate.

The horrors of the Holocaust led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whereby international leaders and lawmakers hoped that the world could learn from racism and persecution. Sadly, the importance of remembering this dark chapter in history grows ever more critical. The disinformation and dehumanization of the Jewish people delivered by the Nazis came through books, posters, speeches,

radio, and film, as the Nazis scapegoated the Jewish people for all of Germany’s issues. Today, disinformation comes straight into our phones, and minority groups continue to be scapegoated for many of society’s issues. World events are twisted on social media, and the fires of hatred are fanned in far too similar ways to 1930’s Germany.

80 years have now passed since its liberation, so it will not be long before all of those who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust have passed away. I feel incredibly privileged to have met Holocaust survivors during my studies and travels, people who made it their life’s work to educate young people about the dangers of extremism. I also feel privileged to be taking Cohort 10 children to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp this summer for Honywood’s twentieth (or more, we’ve lost count) trip to Berlin. Cohort 9 have just completed their GCSE study of 20th-century German history and the Holocaust. Cohort 8 will shortly be studying the Holocaust through reading the inspiring book Prisoner B-3087. In the face of rising hate, Holocaust education can play such an important role in promoting the universal principles of human rights, justice, and moral responsibility, as well as the importance of thinking critically in the world of social media. Learning from the inspiring stories of individuals’ testimonies from the Holocaust can also help us be hopeful, and not hateful.

“That’s the difficulty in these times: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered. It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl.

Mr D Smith

C7 PARENT’S EVENING

Our C7 parents evening will be taking place on Wednesday 12th February. Learners should be bringing booking sheets home on Monday. Please let your child know when you will be available for appointments so that they may book you in with their teachers. Parents evening is a great opportunity to meet the teachers and find out about the progress learners are making. However, as always families are welcome to contact their class teacher any time if they have questions or concerns with their child’s learning. Mr Munro has explained the process to learners in their assembly this week. He will be writing to families about the arrangements. We look forward to welcoming you into school on Wednesday 12th.