By Emily Chapman Laing
Cranbourne North’s Alkira Secondary College held its 10th annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony on Thursday 4 May.
Students, teachers and guests gathered to once again bear witness to the stories of those who lost their lives in the genocide, and those who fought to survive.
Guest speakers included Courage to Care’s Les Kausman OAM, Holocaust survivor Peter Gaspar, Head of the Gandel Holocaust Study Program for Australian Educators Yael Eaglstein, as well as two students from the Mt Scopus Memorial College Holocaust Studies class.
Time and again, the message was hit home for the audience that it is in remembering the past we can prevent its repetition.
“I have learned from all that evil a light can shine that will illuminate the path ahead for the young people,“ Mr Kausman said.
“If we focus on the actions of the heroes of the Holocaust, today’s youth can be inspired.
“For young people today the Holocaust is not their experience, but it is their inheritance.“
Mr Gaspar recounted his memories of fleeing Slovakia during the reign of the Nazis.
“At the end of the war, Holocaust photos were all that remained of my extended family,“ he said.
“I was too young to have met most of the people in the photos, and I’m not sure I will remember the ones I did meet.
“These people were turned to ashes.“
It was in the acts of the bystanders, Mr Gaspar said, that these atrocities reached their climax.
“The Holocaust didn’t just happen,“ Mr Gaspar said.
“It happened because 500 million people in Europe at the time let it happen.
“It did not start with shooting, murder, gas chambers and crematoria. It started with words, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination.“
Mrs Eaglstein reiterated the importance of today’s youth having the courage to take action against injustice.
“Let’s vow never to be silent whenever, or wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation,“ she said.
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
“If I can leave you with one message today it is not to be a bystander.“
Alkira college will plant a Japanese Maple tree, symbolising peace, in their school garden.
Stones surrounding the tree will bear the names of students, teachers and guests who came together at the ceremony to keep the memory and teachings of those lost in the Holocaust alive.
