Year 10 Holocaust Experience
Year 10 RE ‘Faith and Persecution’ Conference
On Thursday 25th May, Year 10 took part in an RE conference entitled ‘Faith and Persecution’, focusing on the Holocaust.
The day started with an overview on the Holocaust. The emphasis was on the individuals behind the statistics. Often with any statistic from any historical or modern event where individuals have been affected, it is easy to forget that these victims had a life to live. The session highlighted how no one should forget and that we need to learn from the mistakes of the past.
After Break, we listened to a presentation by Michael Bibring via Zoom, who told us the story of his father Harry Bibring, who came to Britain on the Kindertransport with his sister in 1938, aged just 13. Sadly, he never saw his parents again. Harry’s father died of a heart attack and his mother was deported to the extermination camp Sobibór – where she was murdered.
For many years, Harry Bibring visited BHGS to talk to Year 10 students about his experiences in WWII. It was wonderful to be able to continue the link with his family, through his son Michael. Harry devoted much of his life to sharing his story in the hope that others might learn from it, reaching tens of thousands of young people through the Trust’s Outreach programme. Students wrote reflections on leaves which have been displayed in one of the RE classrooms. Students also wrote letters of thanks to send to Michael Bibring.
The day ended watching a film called ‘The Freedom Writers’, which is based on a true story set in America, where a class of students who were impacted greatly by their home lives, gangs and other negative factors from the outside world, managed to change against all the odds. They are taught about the holocaust at one point to emphasise that working against one another will only account for hatred and war. They write their stories down in a diary. This film once again showed that humans must learn from mistakes.
This R.E day was eye opening and provided us all with information that we will not forget.
