By Danielle Kutchel
Students at Alkira Secondary College looked to the past for lessons for a kinder future at their seventh annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony.
The ceremony took place at the College on Tuesday 30 July and was attended by Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards and City of Casey deputy mayor Rosalie Crestani, anti-racism not for profit Courage to Care and members of the Jewish community.
The ceremony is an opportunity to reflect on the Holocaust and other genocides and what lessons can be learned from history.
On entering the ceremony, guests were given a slip of paper printed with the name of a Holocaust victim. Later, guests laid stones on a table in memory of those who lost their lives, in an homage to the Jewish custom of putting stones on graves.
Professor Gilah Leder AM, a survivor, told those assembled of the slow changes in society that led to the murder of the Jews, from not being allowed to go for a walk to not being allowed to go to the shops.
She was saved by a foster family, who took her in and hid her to keep her safe from prying eyes and authorities.
“I don’t find it all that easy to stand in front of all these people I don’t know and talk about personal things, but I see it as a way of thanking my foster family,” she told Star News.
“When I said they put their lives and the lives of their family in danger, that’s exactly what I meant. This is a way of thanking them and also hoping their example will inspire other people.”
Other guest speakers urged students not to be bystanders, but rather to stand up against injustice, racism and persecution.
Alkira teacher Nicole Scott said students at the school spend a term in year 10 studying World War Two, especially human rights and freedoms and the stories of people who stood up to injustice.
Prior to the ceremony, Ms Scott and fellow teacher Kristine Wolfe were presented with awards for excellence in Holocaust education from Gandel Philanthropy.
In 2013, the teachers attended a Gandel conference at Yad Vashem in Israel where they learned how to teach students about the Holocaust. Alkira’s ceremony was born from their experiences there.
Nicole Brittain, grant manager at Gandel Philanthropy, said the teachers had taken on board the lessons of their trip to Israel.
“Nicole and Kristine really are the jewel in the crown in terms of our teachers. They’ve come back and really grasped the gift they were given to be able to go to Israel and learn about how to teach the Holocaust,” she said.
“We try to use the memory of the Holocaust in two ways, so never to forget to keep the memory alive, and also to … know that this type of behaviour is unacceptable … and it’s very important to be an upstander, not a bystander.”
Ms Scott said the ceremony was a valuable experience for all attendees and guests.
“It remembers everything bad that’s happened and it’s like everyone attending making a pledge to make the world a bit better,” she said.
