RESPONSES
Following the outreach sessions, students are asked to present a written response to the testimony they have read or heard. This creative writing assignment is often aligned with the theme for Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day set by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, e.g. Torn From Home.
​
Below you will find a selection of responses from visits to Hampshire sixth forms and colleges.
All pieces are shared as written. Click the thumbnail image or title to see the original piece as presented by the indvidiual for the exhibition alongside a transcript of the piece.
Poems
'Torn From Home': Short Stories
Personal Essays
After reading the Holocaust testimony I felt I had developed a greater understanding about the fear and the terror that many people would have experienced. As I did not originally know much about the Holocaust I found it interesting to learn about the specific details that certain people experienced and how this has shaped their lives that they live today. I find History much more interesting and engaging when it involves people's personal memories and emotions rather than just learning the facts and therefore I was engaged in this person's story. I also find testimonies much more emotional if they are read by someone who has survived or is strongly emotionally attached to the piece as this makes it much more meaningful and thought provoking for the listener. After reading the testimony I am more interested in finding other people's accounts of the Holocaust to get a greater understanding of how it was for other people and for different age groups at this time.
I think the wider issue of people needing to 'speak up' is very important as a lot of people's views and opinions are shut away and hidden in today's society as they are seen as wrong. Secrets often make situations much worse when they are revealed so people should speak out and get heard because you are normally not alone and you being heard could make things better for many other people as well as yourself. The testimony highlights this and shows that when people don't speak up other people's lives are lost innocently. People often feel scared to share their opinions and knowledge of things and this means details are unknown about for long periods of time leading to bigger issues when things are revealed. Everyone should learn to trust their instinct and tell someone as bystanders are sometimes just asguilty as the criminals.
It’s easier to forget what had happened in fear of realising the reality. In case it feels real. But the only thing worse than remembering is forgetting; let us not. We as society must not forget the fortitude that was created through the Holocaust as eleven million innocent people were murdered. Ripped of their identity, forced into manual labour and slaughtered in the most inhumane way was how many people lost their lives to the Nazis. Waiting for death to save them was the disturbing outcome for the victims. Still many clung to hope. To freedom. To sanity. The 'lucky' ones who were offered life had to endure years of mental and physical exhaustion in the concentration camps; being used as human experiments, starvation and an indescribable fear. How could this mass execution go on because people didn't fit the Nazis' view of perfection? It was only one group of people who wanted them killed so how come the extermination went forth? But yet many German civilians did nothing to stop this and weren't accused or blamed. Some who did stand up for mankind were killed, others were discouraged. But that's exactly the problem. What's to say there won't be a repeat of the Holocaust if we don't speak out? We as people who live in a democracy have the choice to speak up, speak out, but so many that lost their lives from the Holocaust couldn't. We owe it to them to not hide away from issues surrounding the world today otherwise their deaths count for nothing.
When I think of the enormity of the Holocaust, the 6 million Jews executed in the Final Solution it's hard to comprehend just how many lives which were actually lost. To get my head around the figures isn't possible because I have never lived through genocide on this scale. All I can do is try to imagine what it was like for the individuals, as they rolled into the station and were sent for a 'shower'. No one can fully understand the dread felt within the gas chambers as it became apparent that this was it. Within minutes they would all be dead. All we can do is read of the tales of survival, against impossible odds: fortune, sometimes without motive, striking again and again for those few who made it out alive. Amongst these incredible stories, is that of Elie Wiesel. A Hungarian born, Jewish-American man who is the writer of "Night". Reading an extract from "Night" has given me a profound response.
​
In this extract, Wiesel is exploring his journey from his hometown, to an unknown destination which he soon discovers to be the death camp "Auschwitz". It is hard to imagine how people like Wiesel coped during this long and traumatic journey. Throughout there was a lack of water and sanitation for those who had to endure this hardship; the 70 people packed into these cattle cars couldn’t even sit down. Wiesel explains how people in the carts were forced to the point of insanity due to the horrible environment they found themselves in and the separation anxiety they felt, not knowing where their families were being taken. In particular the example used in the article was that of a woman who had gone insane and thought there was fire in the distance. This later became true when they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, but the woman was beaten into silence by her fellow passengers in order to save them from stopping the guards again. When they did arrive, there was a moment when they disembarked from the wagon and he accepted that all the possessions and their families were left behind. The smell of burning flesh was all that remained. This account clearly shows the utter hopelessness of the Holocaust and the suffering which was endured before those who had felt it were sent to their deaths.
​
