Holocaust Memorial Day

By Year 10 students Isabel T, Lydia K, Analena T, Azize OB, Theresa L

she remained for six months. She was later forced to endure a horrific seventeen-day journey to Mauthausen, in open coal wagons, without food, little water and in filthy conditions. On arrival at Mauthausen, Anka was so shocked when she saw the name of the notorious concentration camp that she went into labour.

Decades after the camp was liberated Anka went on an emotional journey back to Terezín with Eva as she showed her daughter where she had lived and almost died. When Eva returned alone to the ghetto years afterwards, she was especially touched to find her brother Dan's name had since been inscribed on a memorial wall there - the only physical trace of the baby whose death had guaranteed Eva’s life. If you want to read more about her story or the other two survivors read “Born Survivors” by Wendy Holden.

On Monday 23rd January, Year 10 participated in a Holocaust Memorial Day which included a talk by Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke, as well as sessions by Mr Griffiths, Mr Frost and Ms Stanley on the geographical, religious and historical impacts of the Holocaust. Dr Stern also talked to the year group about his family experiences.

In the morning, Eva Clarke, a holocaust survivor, came to talk about her mother’s experience and being born in a concentration camp. Eva Clarke was one of only three babies born in Mauthausen concentration camp who had survived the Holocaust. She was born on 29 April 1945, just a day after the Nazis had destroyed the camp's gas chambers and less than a week before its liberation. Months earlier, her mother, Anka Kaudrová, had voluntarily followed her husband, Bernd, to Auschwitz–Birkenau after he was transported there from Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, where they had both been imprisoned.

She was pregnant with Eva on her arrival but she never revealed this to anyone. Anka was moved from Auschwitz–Birkenau to a slave labour camp near Dresden, Germany, where

Afterwards, the students were put into smaller groups where we heard about Reserve Battalion 101; what we learned was that this group of ordinary men, some of them husbands and fathers who were not necessarily vicious racists or active Nazis for the most part willingly participated in the brutal slaughter of innocent people.

The day finished with a plenary session which gave us time to reflect on the day. We listened to some music called “In Buchenwald” by a Polish musician Jozef Kropinski who was arrested by the Gestapo for publishing an underground newspaper, and sent to Auschwitz. He wrote dozens of pieces of music there, and later at Buchenwald concentration camp. He composed mostly at night by candlelight, just a few feet from piles of dead bodies, to help raise the spirits of fellow prisoners.

Holocaust Memorial Day is still important today because, for younger people, the Holocaust was a very long time ago, so they could feel more distanced from it. Holocaust Memorial Day can prevent that. Holocaust Memorial Day is also a day when people think about inhumanity. That’s why it also contains a universal message about crimes against humanity. Genocides still happen today, for example in Rwanda, so learning about the Holocaust is as relevant as it ever was. Holocaust survivors won’t be alive for a lot longer so it is up to those who listen to them to keep the memories alive.