Students keep a memory alive

Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the college’s Students’ Union has been marking this across the college with information displays, prayers and candles.

Students were able to learn more about the stories of Holocaust victims and survivors through the display boards which described some of the survivors’ life stories. There were marks of respect made also to victims of genocide in countries like Rwanda and Cambodia throughout the 20th century.

The college’s chaplain Konrad Schafer led a prayer at the Derby Road campus where students paid their respects to pray and think about the time when the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews between 1941 and 1945.

Students’ Union president Will Jordan said: “This was a point in history which many people would wish to forget, but at the same time it’s important to remember. We’ve put together a range of information in a sensitive way to educate students about the time when over six million people died in mass shootings and in extermination camps.

“Students have had the opportunity to reflect on this atrocity and watch a couple of films which focus on the Holocaust. These were The Diary of Anne Frank and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.”