Speak Up, Speak Out from Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

ARCHIVE for HMD2010: The Legacy of Hope

The case studies and related education resources for HMD2010, The Legacy of Hope, have been archived. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is currently focusing on the theme for this year, Speak Up, Speak Out.

HMD 2010 Primary Assembly

Leader
Today is January 27th and every year January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day.

On this day we remember all the innocent people persecuted and killed by the Nazis in the years before and during the Second World War.

January 27th is chosen for Holocaust Memorial Day because it was on that date in 1945 when the people who were still alive were set free from the Nazi death camp in Poland called Auschwitz-Birkenau. This year is a special anniversary because 65 years have passed since the people were set free.

Student A
Millions of people were murdered when the Nazis were in power but other people who were persecuted are still alive today. Some of them live here in the UK and in today’s assembly we are going to hear about one of them.
(Show power-point picture of Ben today)

Student B
This is Ben Helfgott. He is 80 years old. When Ben was 9 years old the Nazis came to his village in Poland.

Student C
The Nazis told Ben and his family that they had to move out of their home, leave most of their possessions behind and go to live in a ghetto.

Student D
A ghetto was a small area of a town where the Nazis made Jewish people live.

Student E
There was not much space in the ghetto and it was very overcrowded.

Student F
People did not have enough to eat and lots of children and old people became ill and died.

Student G
Any Jewish person found outside the ghetto without permission could be shot.
(Show power-point ghetto photograph, boundary signs)

Leader
Some of the people in the ghetto still had Polish friends who lived outside the boundaries and they arranged to smuggle food into the ghetto to help people survive. Ben’s Father was very brave. He smuggled flour into the ghetto, a very dangerous thing to do.

Student A
When Ben was 12 he was sent to work in a glass factory, outside the ghetto. He had to walk from the ghetto every day to join a work unit.

Student B
Ben remembers the man in charge of the unit. He was called Mr Janota.

Student C
He knew that Ben was a Jewish boy from the ghetto and perhaps because he thought that Ben had no-one to speak up for him, he was very cruel to him.

Student D
Ben remembers that on his first day at the factory he was bullied and beaten by Mr Janota.

Student A
Ben told his father all about Mr Janota.

Leader
Three weeks later, when Ben’s father was in the house of a Polish friend making arrangements to smuggle flour, Mr Janota came in. He wanted to borrow a horse and cart so that he could transport vegetables from his allotment. Ben’s father recognised the name Janota and he asked why the man had been so horrible to Ben.

Student A
When he heard what Mr Janota had done to Ben, the Polish man was very angry and he refused to lend him his horse and cart.

Student B
But Ben’s father did not see any need for revenge. He managed to persuade his Polish friend to let Mr Janota use the horse and cart.

Leader
Ben says that his father was a man of generous spirit, sensitive to the needs of others. He believed in setting good examples, by behaving well towards other people no matter what they had done.

Student C
Perhaps this example of kindness saved Ben’s life because…

Student D
Mr Janota changed his behaviour and stopped bullying Ben.