Today in the I newspaper, journalist Sarah Cassidy writes about teaching of the Holocaust in our UK schools. Joe Stirling visits Norfolk schools, talking about his escape from Nazi Germany and how his parents perished in Sobibor. In this thought-provoking article Year 9 pupil John Soben, 14, said ‘Of course, we have learnt that 6 million people died, but having someone who’d actually been there telling you what it was like makes it much more real’. I relate particularly to the words of Anita Parmar, Head of the LFA (Lessons from Auschwitz) project who says, ‘I think it is about dehumanising all the people involved in the events of the Holocaust. When you read about the Holocaust in text books, it can seem unreal because it seems so horrific and on such a large scale. We want to look at the individuals.’ And that it what I have tried to encapsulate in Escaping Hitler. I worked hard at keeping the issues to a human scale, citing experiences of four children during Kristallnacht, not dwelling on the unimaginable fate of Günter’s parents, instead focussing on their final night in Koblenz, amongst friends, courageously awaiting their inevitable fate. If Joe’s story can help children relate to the Holocaust then our job is done. You can read Sarah Cassidy’s article in full at:
Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Boy's Quest for Freedom and his Future 