20 Jan Local students remember the Holocaust with survivor Steven Frank
More than ninety NewVIc students and staff attended the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Event this Thursday 18 January at Stratford Picture House, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day which will be held on 27 January.
Using film footage and photographs about the personal account of the holocaust, survivor Steven Frank delivered an inspiring and invaluable experience to share his personal experience of how the holocaust affected him and his family. Steven Frank was born in 1935 to a well-known Dutch lawyer Leonard Frank. With the outbreak of war, the family remained in Holland because Leonard was a board member that governed one of the most advanced Jewish mental hospitals in the world.
Joining the Dutch Resistance Leonard organised false papers to enable people to escape across the border to the safety of Switzerland, he helped Jews to find hiding places including his own home. Miraculously he achieved all of this, while working reluctantly for the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, where he was forced to carry out Nazi orders.
In 1942 he was betrayed and arrested in his office in Amsterdam and imprisoned, tortured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where, due to his poor physical condition, he was gassed in January 1943.
NewVIc student Adriana Perez who is currently studying GCSE’s in History, English and Psychology said “we learnt a little about the holocaust in class, but this was more intensive I feel stronger in my knowledge to talk about it to others. Listening to Steven and watching the videos makes me think that we don’t fully appreciate the life we have. I feel this experience teaches us to realise the effects of racism and the importance of taking a stand”
