Last week in school, we were delighted to mark Holocaust Memorial Day by holding a week-long programme of activities. Our school is proud to be a UCL Beacon School in Holocaust Education, a dynamic hub enhancing the quality of learning and teaching as part of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. This year, it was fantastic to extend our remembrance past just one day, by holding a Holocaust Awareness Week.
With a host of informative sessions taking place throughout the week, the whole school community has had the opportunity to engage in many different curriculum events. Year 8 History lessons focused on the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany, Year 9 Geographers explored how conflict affected children’s human rights, Year 7 pupils enjoyed making Matzos in their Food lessons and Year 10 pupils studied Kindertransport – just to name a few of the thought-provoking lessons that took place during the week. Alongside this, the School’s Head of Film Studies, Leona Heimfeld, spoke passionately to students about her family, including her father, Leizer, who was a survivor of more than one concentration camp, bearing witness to the impact of the genocide on families to this day.
Holocaust Memorial Day has taken place on the 27 January each year since 2001, and is used as a day for everyone to remember the millions of innocent people who were killed, and those whose lives were affected, by events during the Second World War under Nazi persecution, and the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The date itself was chosen to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, and the Northampton High School community is proud to remember this world changing event with its continued annual awareness activities.
