Educating for humanity
A state school in suburban Melbourne – far from the city's Jewish hub – is empowering students to commemorate the Shoah and ensure its memory is carried on, writes Carol Saffer.
Alkira Secondary College, a non-denominational school in Melbourne’s Cranbourne North, has around 1200 students from a diverse range of backgrounds, most of whom are not Jewish.
It is also the only state school in Victoria, and possibly Australia, that holds an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day event conducted by the students. This year was the 11th such event.
The drivers and creators of this special experience are two teachers at Alkira, Kristine Wolfe and Nicole Scott, who applied and were selected to attend the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators at Yad Vashem.
Established in 1993, the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem conducts Holocaust-related educational programs, designed to suit specific audiences across the globe. It is the only school of its kind in the world.
The education at Yad Vashem is interdisciplinary, multi-faceted and multi-directional and it applies the “safely in, safely out” pedagogical approach in its teaching. It focuses on how individuals lived before, during and after the Holocaust, as well as defining the “choice-less choices” they were forced to confront in this period.
John Gandel, chair of the Gandel Foundation, considers that teachers and educators benefit from the world-class program created at Yad Vashem.
“I believe there is no better place anywhere in the world to learn about the Holocaust, and how to ensure that it is taught properly, than at Yad Vashem,” he said.
“That is why Pauline and I, and our extended family, are happy to lend our name to the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators.
“This program is unique in Australia, and it is arguably the only one of its kind, helping train secondary school teachers and other education professionals how to appropriately teach about the Holocaust and human rights.”
The Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators is in its 15th year.
Some 500 Australian teachers and educators have graduated from the program.
Wolfe told The AJN, “Knowing that education is the vessel for how we change the world, being able to be upskilled by experts, that we don’t have of that calibre in Australia, was such a privilege.
“The fact that I had the opportunity to learn from those people, hear testimonies, and learn how to safely teach, because we can shock kids with as many facts as we like but it doesn’t mean we are creating better, empathetic humans.”
She said she is eternally grateful for the opportunity and experience.
At this year’s event she mentioned, “It’s funny, a decade on, and I would love to go back and do it again with what I know now; with how I’ve tried to do it for 10 years; going in with that lens for what more I could get.”
She believes that learning never stops and as the current climate shifts, the challenge of antisemitism is greater than ever.
“There would be so many lessons to learn once again, but it was an incredible experience, and I am very grateful for everything,” she added.
“Nicole and I attended the Holocaust Studies Program and are able to pass on even a little bit to our students that come here. And it is special. There are no other state schools in Victoria that do this.
“We invited students from Mount Scopus Memorial College to do a reading this year and also invited students from John Paul College where Nicole now teaches, to come this year and read a prayer.”
The event is always slightly different because the Alkira teachers and students involved try to reflect everything that Wolfe and Scott learned at Yad Vashem.
Over the years thousands of Alkira’s year 10 students have heard survivor testimonies that will not be possible for much longer.
“We know the power of telling and learning the lessons through testimony. It feels very powerful, but also just being there and being a participant, the kids can commit to that idea of ‘I will stand up so this doesn’t happen again’ and they can see and feel the emotion,” Wolfe said.
She went on to say that Peter Gaspar has been the Holocaust survivor speaker for the last few years. “His story encapsulates the impact of one person’s story and millions of people have stories like his, I think that’s very powerful.”
Peter Gasper said when delivering his testimony, “It gets easier every time I do it.
“I did not start talking about my experiences for about 40 years after I arrived mostly because nobody was interested. Nobody asked so I didn’t talk.
“And then it was mainly after I retired at around 60 that I found opportunities generally with the neighbours and the Courage to Care organisation that I started to do this. And I’m fortunate I’m able to cope. Other survivors and friends find it very difficult.”
When The AJN asked what he thought would happen in the future when there are no longer any survivors of the Holocaust, he replied, “It’s interesting that you asked that question because it was the subject of a recent discussion at the Holocaust Museum.
“And I ask myself will future generations who have never met a Holocaust survivor, how will that affect them? And I think what we are doing with Holocaust custodians and custodians of family stories is very important.
“Basically I don’t know, but I wish I was a fly on the wall in another 20 or 30 years time to be able to answer that.”
He went on to say there have been many films and lots of books about the Holocaust.
“Not to focus on negatives, but I feel somewhat distressed about some of the things that have been written and spoken. I am also distressed that the commercialisation of the Holocaust has become a bit of a new industry that has been exploited.”
During the service, the sense of reverence in the Alkira auditorium was palpable.
There was silence as the year 10 students, who learn about the Holocaust as part of their curriculum, took their places. The auditorium seats 400 and all rows were filled.
Two students, Harneesh and Jazmine read W.H. Auden’s poem Refugee Blues, a very appropriate elegy which was first published on the eve of World War II.
It meditates on the plight of Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Nazi Germany but unable to find refuge elsewhere. It depicts the trauma and pain of being forced to leave home, and of being unable to find a place of safety and security in a violent and uncertain world.
Towards the end of the ceremony, student Arzo spoke about the reading of the names and invited the audience to place a stone and write an entry in the 11th Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony Book.
She said, “Most of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust have not been identified. It is important to give these victims of the Holocaust a name and therefore an identity.
“In the placing of these stones, we remember the six million Jewish martyrs who lost their lives in the Holocaust.”
It was a very emotional moment.
There was a notation written in the Remembrance Book, “There is a lump in my throat as large as this stone.”
Courage to Care CEO Mike Zervos said, “Courage to Care was proud to support the Alkira Secondary College ceremony once again. This [event] was created by graduates of the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators.
“It is a wonderful initiative, and we encourage other schools to consider holding similar events. It’s uplifting when you hear students assert about the Holocaust, ‘We must never forget, it should never have happened, and we must never let it happen again.’”
Teachers can download the guide written by the creators of the Alkira ceremony at couragetocare.org.au/resources/teacher-resources/
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