Stopfordian 2010–2011 - Stockport Grammar School

The Stopfordian 2010–2011
Year 5 pupils came across from the Junior School, both to see
their work displayed alongside the work of many Senior
School pupils and also to attend a presentation given by
Mr Ehegartner. Mr Ehegartner concentrated more on the
intolerance and pessimism which contributed to the
Holocaust and, without dwelling on either, he encouraged us
to appreciate what we have and recognise that others are
not similarly fortunate. The response of one pupil is
included here.
On Thursday 27 th January the Year Fives visited the Holocaust
Memorial Day display in the Senior School. When we arrived
Mr Ehegartner was playing some music called “Where is the
love?” by the Black Eyed Peas.
First we were given a piece of paper with the picture of a glass
of water on it. We had to choose if our glass was half full or
half empty to see if we were optimistic or pessimistic. We
listened and watched the music again to see what the song was
about. It was about the world with no love and asking where
is it?
Then we were asked to write on pieces of paper how different
people could make the world more peaceful and a better
place. We had to fill a big jar with our ideas and see if we
could fill it up to the top, which we did! Next, we looked at
the displays and art work that we and the seniors had done.
We were told that the Jews had believed things that weren’t
true and that Anne Frank, who was a Jew, had to go into hiding
to protect herself from the Germans. We learnt a lot from our
visit and found it very interesting.
Charlotte Jones (5RT)
A large number of pupils then attended a speech given by Mrs
Ruth Lachs, a survivor from the period. We heard about the
various fates of members of her family and then about the
incredible personal courage of those who saved Mrs Lachs
over many years spent in hiding. Her own response to the
sufferings through which she lived seemed to be “I coped,
because I had to cope.” This was inspiring to all lucky enough
to hear her speak. There follows a response from one of the
pupils in the audience.
As she started to tell us about her early childhood life, before
the Nazis and Hitler came to power, and started exterminating
Jews, I was very proud to be sitting in the audience and found
it quite terrible how her life, with so many friends and a good,
caring family, could change so quickly in the space of a day.
She took a very sensitive approach to her story of her surviving,
not pointing fingers at anyone, which I thought was very good,
as it made it sound like we were travelling with her, on her
unbelievably horrible journey, something a child of very young
age should not have to take part in, and not feel all those
emotions that constantly circled around her.
I was very sad when she told us that she got separated from her
parents and went to live with another family with her brother
as it must have been really upsetting and I can’t imagine that
ever happening to me. I would be absolutely distraught, as
your parents are the people that lead your way in life and are
the people that comfort you when things are bad, but she
didn’t have that during her journey; she didn’t know if she’d
ever see them again and she had to cope all by herself. I
cannot even imagine trying to change my identity like she had
to do and remember that I had a new name and a new religion.
I was very shocked after she told us that her younger brother,
about four, had been killed in an extermination camp, amongst
the massive numbers of children also killed in the various
camps. Her brother never got to see his parents or his beloved
sister again. They never got to see him grow up. I could never
imagine my sister being killed, in the ruthless hands of others.
But I guess, life is full of tragic surprises, like she said, and that
we should keep peace in the world.
However, I was so uplifted by the fact that a number of
students, risking their lives for children they didn’t even know,
When Mrs. Lachs first started to introduce herself, I was
spellbound that she had taken the time and effort to come
to Stockport Grammar to tell her sad but wonderfully
uplifting story.
18 The Year’s News