The Dignity of Difference

Holocaust Memorial Day was marked within the college by a thought provoking movie and a speech from a Holocaust Survivor.

Gavin, our current Student Union President, introduced the proceedings by explaining how for today's young people the actual reality of the Holocaust or even the Second World War is so far in the past it's almost impossible to fully understand.

However, a short film about the Dignity of Difference (the main theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day) had some very thought provoking content, talking about how the Jews were not alone in their suffering.

In fact, Gypsies, disabled people, lesbian and gay, and black people all suffered because of their differences when the Nazis implemented their theories of racial purity.

After the film, the guest speaker, Martha Blend described the build up to the Holocaust. She explained that she was only 8 years old in 1939, and remembers being separated from her school chums because she was a Jew. Despite having top marks and grades, she was put into a part of the school reserved for 'second class citizens'.

She spoke of how she was eventually evacuated to England - the country that took far more evacuees than any other - remembering her sad farewell to her mother. Only children were evacuated, not adults, so families were split apart.

Only rumours of the horrors of the concentration camps and the mass murder followed.

Martha never actually saw her parents alive again.