Holocaust Memorial Day – Year 8 Webinar

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day and as part of the innovative Year 8 Humanities programme, the girls and boys in Year 8 attended the webinar hosted by the Holocaust Education Trust. Interviewed by Natasha Kaplinsky, Eve Kugler MBE gave a moving account of her happy childhood in Germany before the terrible events of Kristallnacht in November 1938 and the arrest and subsequent incarceration of her father in Buchenwald concentration camp. The family soon packed up and, penniless, fled to Paris where the Nazis once again caught up in 1940, forcing the family to split up and take refuge in Vichy controlled France. Her parents managed to smuggle Eve and her sister Rosa out of the country and, eventually, to America, although they had to remain behind and suffered in a number of Nazi work camps until the end of the war. The sisters were separated for much of their time in America and lived with Jewish foster parents until the almost miraculous return of their parents in 1946. The full story of her early life is told in her book ‘Shattered Crystals’ which is available from her website www.shatteredcrystals.net as a free download. The opportunity to hear first -hand of such events is becoming increasingly rare and historically and emotionally valuable. Eve’s resilience in the face of adversity shines out as a beacon to us all.

Mr  P Morgan-Jones / Mr P Tweddle