Holocaust Survivor Life Story – Student Experience

On Thursday 26^th January 2023, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, students from Hamstead Hall Academy had the fortunate and exciting opportunity to hear from a holocaust survivor, Ruth Posner, as part of the annual webcast from the Holocaust Educational Trust.

All of the students chosen for this event wrote a letter of application to the History department explaining why they wanted to hear from the holocaust survivor, and there were many fantastic entries.

The holocaust was a terrible event in history, when over 6 million Jews were directly targeted for persecution and murdered in concentration camps and death camps across Europe by the Nazis in the years 1933 to 1945. Homosexuals, ethnic minorities, and other groups were also targeted. Holocaust Memorial Day is 27^th January each year, when we remember these terrible events and try to stop persecution from happening again.

As part of the webcast experience, students heard about Ruth Posner’s personal life story and how they escaped from Nazi captivity along with their auntie. Ruth’s life story has many sad episodes, but is ultimately a message of hope and the importance of family.

Saraya in Year 7 said that: ‘I personally found the holocaust webcast very interesting. At the same time I felt lucky and sad knowing something like that happened but how Ruth moved on with her life is remarkable. Overall I enjoyed this experience and would advise other people to hear from holocaust survivors as these opportunities get fewer day by day’.