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Holocaust Memorial Day
80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau
27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day and Monday 27 January 2025 marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
On Wednesday 22 January 2025, over 140 Year 10 GCSE History pupils and Deer Park staff took part in a live webcast to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. Events are run across the country to remember the victims of the Holocaust. This 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 sharing their story this year was Mala Tribich MBE, born in 1930 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Mala’s family fled eastwards. When they returned, the family had to move into the ghetto established in her home town, the first in Poland. Mala spent time as a slave labourer in the ghetto, was temporarily sent to live with a Catholic family on false papers, before being deported to Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen. Read more about her story...
We were incredibly impressed with the maturity and empathy displayed by our Year 10s throughout the testimony. They 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.
Mr Ferne, Head of Humanities: “We thank the Holocaust Educational Trust for once again facilitating this phenomenal opportunity. Mala’s testimony is immensely moving, and it was an honour to hear her story”.
As time passes, the numbers of survivors decreases and so for our pupils to be able to hear first-hand experiences is increasingly rare. Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) said “I believe firmly and profoundly that whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness, so those who hear us, those who read us must continue to bear witness for us. Until now, they’re doing it with us. At a certain point in time, they will do it for all of us.”
Alongside this experience, 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 2024 Berlin Trip…
The Holocaust Memorial Day theme for 2025 is ‘for a better future'.
Mr Ferne led assemblies for pupils in Years 7-10 during the week commencing Monday 20 January, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. Pupils had the opportunity to watch the testimony of Eddie Jaku, a Holocaust survivor whose message of hope, happiness and positivity in the face of the greatest adversity matches this year's theme. Watch Eddie Jaku’s TEDx Talk...
On 27 January 2025 there will be a wide range of programming from the BBC, amongst other broadcasters, across TV, radio and online, see BBC: Holocaust Memorial Day programming.