As Yom HaShoah falls during the school break, we commemorated it today with a moving ceremony at our Magid Campus. Students lit candles dedicated to Chelmo, Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Majdanek, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau. After a minute’s silence, teacher Geoff Garber recited El Maleh Rachamim and students said Elie Wiesel’s Kaddish. 

We heard from school grandparent and Holocaust survivor Peter Gaspar, who spoke about how his family survived by being hidden by their Christian friends in various locations, including icy streams and the rafters of cold barns. Miraculously, Peter and his mother survived Theresienstadt, his father a labour camp and his uncle survived Auschwitz. Peter reminded us that we are the product of our choices, and we must be upstanders when we see injustice.

We marked the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation with Unter Di Khurves Fun Polyn by Itsik Manger and Saul Berezovsky. We sung the Partisaner Hymn, followed by Advance Australia Fair and Hatikvah. Thank you to Peter for sharing his incredible story with us and to our student committee for planning this remarkable commemoration with Feygi Phillips.