Report from one of our Year 8 students
On Tuesday 4 August, our class was lucky to have the opportunity to do an incursion to the Sydney Jewish Museum. This ties in with our English texts this year, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas and The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which are stories of the Holocaust that happened in World War II.
During the incursion, we were reminded that the stories Holocaust survivors told were not from movies or someone’s imagination. This made it real to us. A 100 year-old man who had survived the Holocaust told the shocking story of being beaten by SS Soldiers who then killed his dog.
A sad tale of survival and loss came from a woman who had managed to survive the War with her mother but sadly, her mother died the day they were liberated from the labour camp they had been in. She was broken in body and spirit by her experiences.
While these stories were grim to hear, it is important to hear them, remember them and pay respect to the survivors. They say that “those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it”.
Xavier Winkler (Year 8)