‘To Watch Prejudice and Stay Silent Cannot Be an Option’

Guest blog post by Lara Smallman

Expanding on the theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, ‘Speak up, Speak Out,’ Natasha O’Leary, a student from Ashmole Academy in Southgate shared her reflections on a recent visit to Auschwitz with an audience of 250 people at City Hall on Tuesday 24th January.

Ashmole Academy has participated in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project, which invites sixth-form students and their teachers ‘to take part in two afternoon seminars and a one-day visit to the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in order to then pass on the lessons in their schools and communities.’

‘I am part of the last generation who will be able to hear about the Holocaust from those people who lived through it, and who can speak about it’. ‘It is my duty,’ Natasha went on to add, ‘to ensure that my generation, and future generations will remember the Holocaust, and understand its importance. We must speak out for those who don’t have a voice’. Naomi Lyne, a fellow student explained how the trip had ‘given [her] a totally different perspective than textbooks alone could ever give.’

Natasha and Naomi’s words followed the personal testimony (which you can watch in this video) of Holocaust survivor Anita-Lesker Wallfisch who lost her parents to the concentration camps and who was herself imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Major of London, Boris Johnson thanked Anita and went on to read the poem Shema by Primo Levi. Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy OBE, Communal Rabbi and Spiritual Head of the Spanish and Portugese Jews’ Congregation then gave a brief address before Abraham Jacobs-Wallfisch, Anita’s grandson performed Sarabande and Bourés from Bach’s cello suite and Thrinos by Tavener.


The London Jewish Cultural Centre, in partnership with the JCC for London is holding a screening of The Last Survivor on Monday 30th January at 7pm. This festival award-winning films follows the lives of survivors of four different genocides and mass atrocities: The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur and the Congo. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Nikki Levitan, David Russell and Judith Hassan OBE: http://www.ljcc.org.uk/events/2059-i-the-last-survivor-i-br-film-screening-to-commemorate-holocaust-memorial-day-with-panel-discussion.html

More information about Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on 27^th January can be found here: http://www.hmd.org.uk/

Find out more about the Holocaust from the Holocaust Explained: http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/