Courage to Care

     On Monday 10th August, Years 11 Modern History, 9/10 History/Archaeology and 9 English travelled with Mrs Macintosh, Mrs Nash and Mr Partridge to Dubbo to participate in the “Courage to Care” program run by the Jewish Museum in Sydney.

     We had the unique opportunity to hear from people who had lived through the Holocaust.  Personal accounts by survivors of the Holocaust are powerful.  They connect us not only person-to-person, but also with an era which is difficult to comprehend.  A survivor’s testimony translates the fate of millions of victims into a single person’s feelings and thoughts.  Typically, the survivors are in their 70s and 80s.  We listened to their personal stories: how they survived the war, and the strength and courage they and their rescuers needed.  Many survivors have found it heartbreakingly emotional to tell their stories.  Decades passed before some were able to do so.

     Each group listened to a Survivor talk about their experiences during this time, including how they and their family were taken, what happened to their family and friends, as well as how they were able to live through such a physically and emotionally abusive time.  One of the Survivors, Ivan, was thirteen when he was taken by the Nazis.  The last time he saw his mother alive was when they arrived at the camp.  A soldier pointed for Ivan to go in one direction and his mother in another.  They were not allowed to speak.  He saw his mother again when he was given the job of getting clothes and jewellery from corpses.  His mother was among the pile of dead bodies.

     Joe (Schwarz) was a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia.  He was first sent to Auschwitz with his mother and nine year old brother, the latter being killed on the first day.  Joe put his age up from 13 to 16 and so worked in slave labour camps.  Just before the end of the war, Joe and his fellow workers walked for two months to a camp which was liberated by the Americans shortly after.

     We also had a session with a Rescuer who had been recognised for his courage as “Righteous Among the Nations”. Adrianus Vanas and his wife, Bertha, helped Jews escape the Nazis either by providing false documents, hiding them or by helping them escape to a safer country.  These people risked their lives and the lives of their family to help because they did not agree with persecution of innocent people.

     Our last session was a “Living in Harmony” workshop where each of us had the opportunity to explore our reactions, feelings and thoughts about what we have seen and heard and to integrate what we have learned into our lives.

     Many students claimed the best part of the day was hearing the survivors’ stories first hand.  They will probably be the last generation to have the opportunity to do so.