27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day and 2024 marks 79 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  

On Tuesday 23 January 2024, over 100 Year 10 GCSE History pupils and staff from Deer Park took part in a live webcast to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. Events are run across the country to remember the victims of the Holocaust and the webcast was run by the Holocaust Education Trust, with over 700 schools and organisations from around the UK taking part in this annual event.

The Holocaust survivor who shared their story this year was Hedi Argent MBE, who was born in Vienna in 1929 and struggled to deal with antisemitism before the Nazi annexation of Austria in March 1938. As a result of Nazi policies, Hedi’s father had his law practice taken over and their family home was requisitioned for a Nazi family. Following the Kristallnacht pogrom on 9 November 1938, Hedi’s father was arrested and spent six months in Dachau concentration camp. Whilst Hedi and her parents secured visas to Britain and fled Nazi persecution six weeks before the outbreak of World War Two, 27 members of their extended family perished in the Holocaust.

Watch a recording of the webcast...

Our pupils were excellent throughout the testimony and engaged effectively with the reflection discussion that followed. They displayed incredible levels of maturity and sensitivity and were a pleasure to work with. The opportunity to hear from a Holocaust survivor is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience and one we hope our pupils will remember for many years to come. As time passes, the numbers of survivors decreases and so for our pupils to be able to hear first-hand experiences is increasingly rare.

Alongside this experience in school, our GCSE History pupils are offered the opportunity to travel to Berlin to support their studies of Nazi Germany and the Cold War. Read about the 2023 Berlin Trip...

The theme for 2024's Holocaust Memorial Day is the ‘fragility of freedom’. With the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance reports on the state of global democracy finding that in 2022 and 2024 the strength and number of democracies around the world continues to decline, standing up for freedom and democracy is an ever-important issue. Hearing Hedi’s story reminds us of the importance of acceptance, liberty and democracy and how it is the duty of us all to stand up for the oppressed whilst challenging those who threaten our hard-won freedoms. 

“We were incredibly impressed with the maturity and empathy displayed by our Year 10s throughout the testimony. They were a pleasure to work with and we thank the Holocaust Educational Trust for facilitating this phenomenal opportunity”. Mr Ferne, Head of Humanities