Collective worship outline for KS2 and KS3

Survivors, liberation and rebuilding lives

Props: suitcase, baby shoes, family photo, hanukkiah, star of David.

Introduction

Imagine what it would be like if you didn't have any friends because your father came from another country. How would you feel if your best friend was told to leave town because she had blonde hair? What would you do? Would you be able to do anything?

Background

In the 1930s in Nazi Germany, many groups of people were blamed for problems in Germany. A secret plan was put together to remove Jews, gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, disabled people, black people and many others. Some people tried to leave the country, but as they went into other parts of Europe, the Nazis followed. Millions died in concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Some adults went to other countries, which were not under Nazi control.10,000 children left Europe and escaped to Britain. What do you think they brought with them? What would you have packed?

We know that many children had their cases packed by their parents. They carried with them photos of their family, baby shoes as a memento of childhood, and religious artefacts, to remember their festivals and Jewish traditions. Life in Britain was very different. Many Jewish children stayed with Christian families, so religious life and food regulations became a problem for some. Only a third of the children, or kinder, saw a parent again after the war.

Survivor stories

Eve, Rudi and Paul Oppenheimer: The last train from Belsen

Every Holocaust survivor has a different story. This is certainly true for the three Oppenheimer children, Eve, Rudi and Paul, who were fortunate to survive for five years under the Nazis in Holland.

'Our parents, Hans and Rita Oppenheimer, lived in Berlin. We were a typical middle-class family of assimilated Jews, who rarely ventured into a synagogue. Paul and Rudi were born in Berlin in 1928 and 1931, respectively.

With the advent of Hitler and the Nazis, life became progressively more difficult for all Jewish people living in Germany. Many Jewish families wanted to leave Germany, but most other countries would not accept these refugees. Our father, Hans, worked at the Mendelssohn Bank in Berlin which had a branch office in Amsterdam in Holland. He had managed to obtain a transfer to the Amsterdam branch in 1936 and the family went to live in Holland, near the seaside in Heemstede. These were happy days for the Oppenheimer children, but they only lasted for four years.

In May 1940, the Germans invaded Holland and within five days, the Dutch army surrendered. The Germans occupied the country, took over its government, and soon started to persecute the Jews who lived there. Anti-Jewish laws were introduced in an insidious step-by-step manner to restrict the life of all Jewish people in Holland. We were not allowed into public places like parks, zoos, restaurants, hotels, museums, libraries and swimming pools. We had to attend Jewish schools. We had to live in Amsterdam. We had to wear the yellow star. We had a curfew. We had to hand in our bicycles. We were not allowed on the bus or tram.

Then the deportations started for 'resettlement in the East' and gradually all the Jews in Holland were transferred from Amsterdam to Westerbork, the transit camp in the north-east of Holland near the German border. From Westerbork there were regular weekly transports to the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor. Out of 100,000 deportees, less than 1,000 survived - one in a 100. 99 out of 100 never came back.

Our family was rounded up in Amsterdam in June 1943 and sent to Westerbork, but we were exempt from deportation to Auschwitz or Sobibor because our sister, Eve, was British. She had been born in London in 1936 during a six-month spell when we were living with an uncle and aunt in London, on our journey from Germany to Holland. This fortunate event eventually saved our lives. In Westerbork, Eve and our family were classified as 'Exchange Jews', people the Nazis wanted to exchange against Germans held by the Allies. After seven months in Westerbork, in February 1944, the five Oppenheimers were deported to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. By this time, Paul was 15 years old, Rudi 12 and Eve was only 7.'

Conclusion

After the Second World War, people said that there were lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, from the wiping out of so many people. The answer was not to hate the Germans as the Nazis had hated others, but rather to learn to put aside prejudices, and challenge those who discriminated against others. We should all learn to appreciate our differences and have respect for others.

Prayers

I Believe

Found on the walls of a cellar in Cologne where Jews were hidden

I believe in the sun
Even when it is not shining

I believe in love
Even when I do not feel it

I believe in God
Even when he is silent

A prayer of Desmond Tutu

Goodness is stronger than evil;
Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness;
Life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.

Posted: 10/12/2004