Rydal Penrhos marks Holocaust Memorial Day
In light of Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday 27 January, Year 10 to 13 pupils were visited by Holocaust survivor Henry Schachter OBE, who recalled his experience of living through the twentieth century's darkest hour.
The subject of the Holocaust has been especially prevalent at Rydal Penrhos this academic year, with Senior pupils and staff participating in an eye-opening trip to Poland involving a visit to the Schindler Museum and a guided tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
As a result of their experience taking part in the overseas trip, Sixth Form pupils Faith Harborne and Tristan Martin were invited to speak alongside Mr Schachter at the ‘Remember the Holocaust’ event in Llandudno’s St George’s Hotel on Sunday 29 January.
Accompanied by Mrs McClean, the Sixth Form pupils listened to Mr Schachter’s story of surviving the horrors of the Nazi regime as a young child.
Mr Schachter was born in 1938, only a year before the war and at the time of the anti-Semitic purge that would later be referred to as Kristallnacht. At five years old, his mother attempted to escape Berlin; to protect her son, she handed him over to a Christian family, who disguised his Jewish identity and gave him a fake name.
The handover would prove the last time a young Henry Schachter would see his mother; in a cruel twist of fate, she was part of the penultimate train to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and died only months before the camp was liberated by Allied forces.
Mr Schachter’s talk was one of many poignant moments during the evening, which was attended by local people and dignitaries, including Darren Millar MS, who also spoke. Various readings and musical interludes featured; Tristan said that: “the singing from Cantor Michael Isdale was especially emotive and powerful. It gave the evening a real sense of solemnity."
“Speaking to some of the people afterwards, specifically the Cantor, who said that it took him 55 years to visit Auschwitz as his family had died there – that was really impactful to hear. It truly emphasised the importance that place has for so many people.”
Rydal Penrhos is proud of Faith and Tristan for contributing to such an important act of remembrance. Learning about the past and how we can avoid its tragedies is a vital part of a modern education, and this is something that is keenly understood by not just our History teachers, but all our staff.
For this reason, we were delighted that Mr Schachter kindly visited Rydal Penrhos this past week to deliver a talk to Key Stage 4 and 5 pupils in the Memorial Hall.
Sharing his story with our pupils, Mr Schachter recalled a moment of miraculous good fortune that he experienced in liberated Brussels in 1944. His uncle was looking for him, only to board the wrong train and head in the entirely wrong direction. Only days later, however, a young Schachter ran up and hugged a man up in the street who looked like his father; amazingly, it proved to be his uncle!
This moment of fortune among the horror adds to the silver lining that can be found in events like the evening of remembrance in Llandudno or the school trip to Poland; namely, that by preserving the memory of those most heinous crimes that humanity inflicted upon itself, we can guard against their repeat. As Tristan said:
“I took away a sense of hope that it was impossible for something like that to happen again without people noticing.”
Thank you to Mr Schachter for sharing your wisdom with our pupils, and to Tristan for speaking to us.
