Yom Hashoah Ceremony

Tuesday, 21st April 2009

On Tuesday, it was Yom HaShoah, a day of remembering and commemorating the lives of those who were murdered in the Holocaust. Usually, one tries to focus on the huge number of victims (6 million); however, realising that such a figure is far too large for anyone to comprehend easily, Rabbi Riffkin decided that it would be fitting to contemplate the one-and-half million Jewish children who died and, more specifically, to relate a few of their individual stories. Thus, during the assembly, members of each year group told the stories of individual children who were the same age as themselves. I found this very powerful, for hearing the voices of pupils the same age as the victims brought to life these children's individual experiences and journeys. The story I read, unlike the others, was a story of hope, for the child I spoke about, Magda Mozes, survived the Holocaust. This was in keeping with the theme of Yom HaShoah: "from grief to hope" . The ceremony ended with the representatives of each year group lighting candles in memory of the children.

By Natasha Rosenfeld, 12MG