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Year 9 students were privileged to hear the testimony of Michael Bibring, a Second Generation Holocaust speaker as part of the Outreach Programme at the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Over the past term, students in Year 9 have been studying the Holocaust in depth in their RE lessons, and this experience has enriched this education and allowed them to link what they are studying to a real-life family.  During the talk, Mr Bibring allowed the students to view a range of primary sources, including his school reports, family letters and his father’s BEM medal.

Mr Bibring told the students about how his father, Harry, and his family faced discrimination and prejudice in Vienna, Austria once Hitler became Chancellor in Germany in the 1930s, including being forced to leave the grammar school that he had worked so hard to get into.  As the war progressed, Harry (aged just 13) and his sister were sent to England on the Kindertransport, as their parents believed it was unsafe for the children in Vienna and were sponsored by a family in London.  Harry and his sister never saw their parents again and they later found out that they had died, his father had a heart attack on the way to a concentration camp and his mother died in the death camp, Sobibor.

Despite these experiences, Mr Bibring told us that his father felt that he had a blessed life and dedicated his life to Holocaust education.  He has spoken at hundreds of schools and universities over the course of his life, including 65 in his final year, and received a BEM from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Holocaust education.

Michael Bibring now wants to continue to share his father’s story to ensure that his legacy continues, by speaking to young people about the discrimination and prejudice that many faced during the Holocaust, in the hope that others may learn from it.

Mr Bibring was very impressed by the conduct and behaviour of our Year 9 students, and we are very proud of how they represented our school.  Many of the students asked thoughtful and reflective questions at the end of the talk, with some of the students staying behind at lunchtime to ask Mr Bibring further questions and to see the artefacts. 

This was a deeply moving experience and we hope the students found it rewarding.