Eight remarkable ladies have produced a remarkable short film, to support the International Holocaust Remembrance day: “Join us in ensuring the Holocaust is never forgotten – 2019 #WeRemember Campaign”. We are asked show them we’re listening. Post your ‘We Remember’ photo with the hashtag #WeRememberor send it by email to weremember@wjc.org 

As you’ll see when watching the film, all the women survived the Holocaust as children. This film formed the centrepiece of our Senior Boys assembly this morning, Monday 28 January, and you can find the full assembly presentation as short movie here – and as slide-show here. I have drawn my graphic below, and pleased to do so. Who knows whether these 8 will be back next year; they certainly don’t think so.

During my assembly, I highlighted some key features of a school child’s life under the Nazis. Children had little chance of avoiding being ‘brainwashed’, most specifically because Adolf Hitler took a personal interest in all german children, seeing as he did their part so clearly in his master plan for the German race. He stated ““Germany’s children’s hearts are mine”, and in the light of the evidence that followed, he made that a reality throughout most of Germany.

Whilst Hitler sought to win the hearts of his own nation’s children, he gave and the Nazi party gave no such affection to the children in other countries.

I concluded assembly with a reminder of one of the clear themes of this term. It is our choice whether we accept the received wisdom in the following process chart: Witness > a sense of Violation > Bypasser syndrome > Learned helplessness.

As we develop our own determination to ‘Notice Better’, we can perhaps accept the alternative: Witness > a sense of Violation > Conscience response > Elective Action.

Indeed, I don’t regard this as a choice for our society. To slightly misquote Garry Herbert: “If not us, who, if not now, when?”