Report on HMD activities in schools, NEU and Poetry project update
Neil Sledge, Wirral NEU International Solidarity Officer
This year is the 30th Anniversary of the Bosnian genocide at Srebrenica, the biggest on European soil since WWII, as well as the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
NEU International has been stepping up its support of and for the educational aims of Remembering Srebrenica UK (www.srebrenica.org.uk) and started the year with its annual Holocaust Memorial Day event at Hamilton House last week.
The speakers were General Secretary Daniel Kabede, who introduced the event with a summary of the importance of standing up to hate and injustice, outlining the 10 steps to genocide.
The main speaker was Rabbi Sandra Kviat, from the Crouch End Synagogue. She told us the story of her grandfather escaping neutral Denmark when the German invaders broke their promise not to round up Jewish citizens. Thanks to a leak of information people had time to hide or escape, somewhat creatively and precariously, to Sweden. An amazing and new aspect of WWII that most of the audience were unaware of. In the end about 650 Jewish people in Denmark were ‘caught’, and only 50 or so died.
Next we heard a brief summary of Sara Hukic’s remarkable story of survival as a 3-year old adopted and whisked away from Bosnia. Sara focused more on what she learnt and is teaching her daughter here in England about being kind to and working with others.
Lastly we heard from Marie Rose Rurangirwa from Rwanda and the Ishami Foundation. She gave some examples of ‘othering’ and humiliation because of her identity whilst at school.
The speakers were not only interesting but left one with a sense of need to know more, as well as inspiring us to do, or ‘be’ more. After each speaker had spoken they lit a candle and took it to the table. Each speaker had selected a piece of music as well so we all had time for reflection and thought. The last piece of music was Rwandan children singing about hope and light which was amazing.
The session concluded with a Q&A and was chaired by NEU President Sarah Kilpatrick. The themes focused on having hope for the future, education, the common themes in all three stories and how we must keep challenging the powers-that-be and each other over their actions and words.
There was also a great array of Polish and middle-eastern snacks available before and after the proceedings and we had managed to arrange some Bosnian paintings by Robert McNeil, titled The Witness Collection and the roll-up banners to be exhibited which added focus to the people as they gathered. The event was well attended (more tickets added), free and open to all NEU members. I was very honoured to have helped make the Bosnian side of this event happen.
Film making
NEU International has also committed to making a short video for showing in districts, branches and at conferences focusing on the importance of educating about the Srebrenica genocide, remembering what happened, how it escalated, and learning from survivors and their messages of peace, respect and hope.
To this end we have been working with writer Nik Perring for a while, enabling him to visit schools in the NW and support pupils to express their feelings about the themes in words. Poems have been published in an online book (https://www.calameo.com/read/00758088470609e52226a) and read by some of the young people at HMD and Srebrenica memorial events in Liverpool, Birkenhead and Manchester. This is continuing and some sessions are currently being filmed, with interviews, lessons and readings all being included. We have extended this project to include survivor stories and were honoured to have Jasmin Dasjic meeting and talking with young people. Again I’m proud to have been heavily involved in both the poetry project, survivor stories and the film development on behalf of Wirral NEU, Remembering Srebrenica NW and NEU International. Watch this space!
My other report is around some school sessions delivered in two Wirral Primaries for Holocaust Memorial Day, with the title ‘More In Common’. With Y5 we explored another survivor story, Sadia and her escape from the Bosnian War, and the themes from that. This is after exploring what we know about the Holocaust and ends with exploring and expressing how we feel about difference, diversity and respect. With younger children we explore these concepts, and love, through picture book stories and songs.
One response to “Remembering Srebrenica & NEU”
Superb report by Neil Sledge who works tirelessly to communicate to children, young people and adults about genocides, their origins and causes and how and why education is essential to prevent such dreadful events.