It might have been virtual, but it was still a full Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Girls’ School thanks to Mrs Abecasis’ heroic efforts.

The opening ceremony saw Mr McClusky, Rabbi Golker and Mrs Brice share their thoughts, and Mrs Abecasis explained the theme of this year’s HRD: ‘Being a Light in the Darkness’. This was a particularly apt theme as we are living in an unprecedentedly dark time, where small acts of kindness bring light into people’s lives; whether this was volunteering for the NHS, setting up local support groups or simply phoning those who live alone.

Mrs Abecasis’ graphic and powerful opening presentation using Nazi propaganda film and clips of Holocaust deniers, as well as footage of the Tree of Life synagogue attack in 2018 to show that the darkness is still around us. However, she concluded, there is light in the form of those who risked their own lives to rescue Jews, such as Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Bielski brothers of Belorussia.

Mrs Brice reminded us that even though the Holocaust remains a blood soaked stain on the conscience of humanity, there is still persecution today and it is our responsibility to be a light for those who are suffering.

For Years 10-13, one of our Year 11 students, A Garren presented the story of Abraham Gutrejman, whose memoir she translated from Spanish to English. Her presentation was phenomenal, with a video clip of the Gutrejman family telling their story, and her own tracing of the Gutrejman story from the darkness of wartime Poland, to Munich, Bolivia and Costa Rica where Ariella met Frieda Gutrejman. One example for being a light was the way the Gutrejman brothers looked out for each other. Avraham carried the injured Yankel on his back; and when they were caught – and Avraham was made to dig his own grave – Yankel threw rocks to fool the soldiers into believing the partisans were on their way. Thus, the brothers saved each other. Later, in South America, Yankel never married to enable his brother, married to Frieda, to be able to support his family.

The History department created a workshop for Year 9, which covered different periods of darkness in history, showing that even in terrible times there were always those who provided ‘light.’ There the students studied the historical backdrop to the darkness, and learned about the darkness of other genocides in the 20th and 21st centuries. The light was the learning about the resistance movements and individuals, such as Sir Nicholas Winton and the White Rose students in Germany.

Years 7 and 8 had two workshop sessions. In one, the English Department looked at light in relation to the Holocaust, exploring Simon Wiesenthal who shed ‘light’ on the crimes of the Nazis after WW2. They also explained about the Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem where memorial candles are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space, creating the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. The names of murdered children, their ages and countries of origin can be heard in the background. Following on, the students brainstormed ideas about light to inspire their own poetry. They also discussed a poem by Holly Peters called ‘The Light of no Hope’, written especially for this year’s HRD.

In the second workshop, JS created a fourfold approach, which began by focusing on Jewish life before the war, and understanding the communities, families, and individuals that were lost. The next stage was to understand how the Jews felt trapped in Europe, focusing on W H Auden’s poem “Refugee Blues” and the paintings of Felix Nussbaum. After that, children’s Holocaust art was explored to try to understand why children would draw pictures of these experiences and how this was also a form of resistance. Finally, as a moment of ‘light’, the girls were taught about the efforts of Dayan Grunfeld and Rabbi Eliezer Silver in rescuing Jewish children who survived the war.

Years 10-13 were all invited to hear the keynote speaker: Mr Mark Weitzman, who is Director of Government Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, among many other significant roles linked to Holocaust Education, Denial and Anti-Semitism. He lives in the US and attended via Zoom. He kindly agreed to answer questions from the students, which were sent in advance, as it was very early in the morning for him!

He gave a very detailed presentation, which highlighted current Holocaust denial and the side lining of the Holocaust. Drawing together the David Irving trial, the Charlottesville rally in August 2017 and legislation in Poland, Ukraine and Russia, he demonstrated that these omissions and denials must be noticed and acted upon in order that the Holocaust is never forgotten as an attack on Jews.

Thank you to Mrs Abecasis. Thank you to the Girls’ English, History and JS teams who created such exciting and engaging workshops for Years 7-9. This event was a light in itself, as we all sat in the glow of our laptops and safe homes to remember both the worst that humanity can do but also to expose the best of humanity.

The video of the presentation can be found here: https://hasmoneanmat.org.uk/hrd/

Last Thursday, the inexhaustible Rebbetzen and Queen of Challa Bakes, Joanne Dove, led the Year 7 Bat Mitzva girls in a special online Challa Bake. The girls were excited and engaged as she demonstrated the magic of yeast, water, flour and Emunah – even if she had to repeat instructions over and over again!

Thank you to our wonderful HIPE team whose creativity and enthusiasm just keeps on inspiring our girls.

Hugó Klein and his wife, Matild (née Szabo) lived in the town of Hencida, in the Bihar district of Hungary. The couple had two daughters, Suzan (b. 1935) and Lili (b. 1937). When World War II broke out, Hugó was drafted into a labour battalion and Matild remained in Hencida with the children. Suzan and Lili were able to send postcards to their father, Hugó, while he was interned in a labour battalion near the Austrian border.

In May 1944, the Jews in the Bihar district were moved into a small ghetto in the suburbs of Nagyvárad. After weeks of starvation and suffering, they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Matild and her girls were amongst the deportees.  All three were murdered.

Hugó survived the labour battalions.  In 1946, he married Ilona Mezei, a cousin of Matild’s who had survived Auschwitz.  In 1947, their son George was born and in 1957, they immigrated to Israel. Ilona Klein and her son George made the decision to donate the postcards that George’s half-sisters had written to their father, along with locks of their hair that had been cut off in their infancy and preserved as mementos. These precious items were all that remained of Suzan and Lili. 

Yad Vashem is not just a museum and a place where we go to remember the Holocaust. It is a place where survivors and their descendants, like Hugo Klein, are able to safeguard their precious artefacts and memories.  It is a place where those who have no physical remnant on earth can be remembered. It is a place which is at the forefront of academic Holocaust research.

It is also a place where tens of thousands of teachers and students come to its International School of Holocaust Studies to learn about the Holocaust and how to teach it. Each year for the last ten years, 20 teachers and head teachers from Hasmonean High and other Jewish schools in the UK have participated in the week-long seminar at Yad Vashem’s International School of Holocaust Studies, paid for by Yad Vashem UK. Here they spend a week with world renowned lecturers and academics learning Yad Vashem’s philosophy of teaching the Holocaust. We know that our children will be exposed to increasing incidents of Holocaust denial and antisemitism in their daily lives and it is vital that we give them the tools to cope with this.

Helen Kon

Yad Vashem Education Officer

“Dear Daddy – we are well – goodbye” – Suzan and Lili’s Last Postcard