Whole School
Assembly for HMD 2014:
The Holocaust
This assembly has been designed for secondary school students in Key Stage 3, 4
and 5 (students aged 11-18) and ideally would take place on 27 January – Holocaust
Memorial Day.
It is recommended that you read the whole of this assembly and look through the
accompanying PowerPoint presentation in advance, so that you can tailor the
assembly to your students: you know your students best.
You will need:
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equipment to display the accompanying PowerPoint presentation – please
test this before the assembly begins!
five students (or colleagues) to read the assembly (noted here as A, B, C,
D and E). You should probably ask the students to read through this in
advance so they can practise what they are going to say.
someone to click through to the next slide – please ask them to have a
practice in advance!
Slide 2: Introduction
Once your students start to enter the assembly, please click on the words ‘An
Assembly’ (not the header). This will start a loop of photos which continue to loop
until you stop them. When all your students are seated, press ‘Esc’ to end the
looping slides and begin the assembly:
A to read:
The photographs that you have been looking at are all connected to the Holocaust.
There are photos of survivors, victims, of rescuers, of persecution, of ghettos and of
concentration camps. Some of them are images you may have seen before. Some
of them may be new to you.
Today is 27 January: Holocaust Memorial Day. This is the day for everyone to
remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in
subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
On this day we can honour the survivors of these regimes of hatred and challenge
ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to help create a safer, better future.
B to read:
Holocaust Memorial Day is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and
to recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own, it’s a steady process
which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented.
We’re fortunate here in the UK; we are not at risk of genocide. However,
discrimination has not ended, nor has the use of the language of hatred or exclusion.
There is still much to do to create a safer future and Holocaust Memorial Day is an
opportunity to start this process.
Slide 4
C to read:
Journeys is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2014. Journeys themselves
were experiences of persecution and terror for many of the people who suffered in
the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in the subsequent genocides.
Slide 5
D to read:
As part of Holocaust Memorial Day, we are asking everyone to take a step on their
own journey to remember the journeys that people were forced on as part of
genocide and to show that we are learning the lessons of the past and using them to
help to create a safer, better future. Before you decide what step to take, we’d like
to play you a short video about Holocaust Memorial Day.
Click on the flame in Slide 6 to play the video
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hmd.org.uk
Slide 7:
E to read:
We’re now going to watch a video of Simon Winston. Simon is a Holocaust Survivor.
Here he tells us a little bit about the journey he was forced to go on.
Click on the photo of Simon in Slide 7 to play the video
(It is just over 6 minutes long)
A to read:
Simon is lucky; he survived. Today is an opportunity for us to honour Simon, and the
other survivors, and to remember the victims of the Holocaust and of Nazi
persecution.
We can each take a step to show that we are doing this. Go on your own journey,
go online, go on Facebook, Twitter, go on the HMD website, and tell the world about
the step you are taking. You could share what you have heard today with someone
who isn’t here, you could light a candle, you could write a poem or draw a picture.
There is now an opportunity for your students to take part in a collective step –
perhaps you could light a candle, perhaps you could hold a minute’s silence to
remember those who did not survive, perhaps you could read a
commemorative poem. If you choose this option, add a sentence such as:
B to read: Let us now take a step together to remember, to honour, to start our own
journey. We are going to light a candle and have a minute’s silence, followed by a
poem by Charles N. Whittaker.
Slide 8:
C to read:
Auschwitz
The semiquaver chugging of the train on the track
And the people on board who will never go back
And the terror in the eyes of all the young ones to go
With no one knowing as the train comes to slow
Those men at the station as the ramps drop down
Where humanity lost is the only crippled sound
Hope gone for those who stand behind the hard sharp wire
And the smoke in the towers rises just a little higher
And the blue ink stabs a little harder in the skin
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Above the veins of despair where murder let it in
And the terror in the eyes of all those about to leave
Another train on the track no last minute reprieve
And the slow, cro...chet chugging of the train on the track;
And the people on board. Who will ne...ver go.
Back.
By Charles N Whittaker
Ask your students to leave in silence. Leave the poem up on the screen.
What next:
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Please encourage your students to take a step. This could be something
done collectively, in the classroom, or could be done individually. Please
encourage your students to record their action here: journeys.hmd.org.uk
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There are lesson plans and more assemblies on the Holocaust, and the
subsequent genocides available on the HMDT website:
hmd.org.uk/education2014
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To read more life stories that invovled Journeys that were undertaken as part
of genocide: hmd.org.uk/journeyslifestories
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