Every year two Year 12 girls are the school’s ambassadors on a trip to Auschwitz, arranged by the Holocaust Educational Trust, and return inspired to pass on what lessons can be learnt, still relevant and important today. The message is not diluted by the passage of time.

Indie Ellis and Rachel Smyth spoke to the whole school today in an assembly to mark Holocaust Memorial Day with its theme ‘Legacy of Hope’. The survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides, they told us, call for the young generation to take a stand against racism, xenophobia and growing divides between cultures and nationalities. Our own JAGS community, full of different cultures and diversity, is an example of how society can draw strength from these differences.

Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass, was the night of mass burning and looting of Jewish properties in November 1938, just before the second world war started. Genocide germinates when people stand by. Indie and Rachel were keen to encourage us to make a stand against using language of hatred, as a way to become part of the Legacy of Hope. Do we let others use derogatory terms to describe people who are different, or make racist jokes?   

Listening to Holocaust survivor, Ziggy Shipper, it is clear that he wants his story to be remembered, to help people of all ages to learn valuable lessons for society. ‘Do I forgive?’ he asked.  ‘Only God can forgive. Do I forget? No.’ But he emphasised that we should not hate; hatred is destructive - it makes you bitter.

‘Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, said George Santayana.

We listened to the exquisite, painful, soaring notes of John Williams’ ‘Schindler’s List’, played beautifully by Year 10 violinist Claudia Moore-Gillon, and to these words from the Upanishads – the ancient Hindu texts, which sum up for Rachel and Indie their Legacy of Hope.

‘Oh Lord, may we move forward in harmony, in harmony shall we speak, in harmony shall our minds apprehend; so the shining ones of ancient times with united minds achieved their noble goals. We pray that united be your deliberations, united be your assembly, united be your minds in harmonious; united be your resolutions  through friendly deliberations, make your offerings in perfect harmony, and united be your wills, united be your hearts, united be your thoughts, so that you may all be perfectly united for the well being of all and everything concerned for the progress in this planet’.

Visit this website to watch the 2010 Legacy of Hope short film:

http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/films/hmd09-ziggy-shipper