Learning From the Past

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, Mr Espensen today delivered the first in a series of assemblies which shine a light on a remarkable individual.

Students across the school will this week learn about Rudolf Vrba, a Czechoslovakian Jew who was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp as a teenager in 1942. Of the 1.3  million people deported to Auschwitz during the Second World War, approximately 1.1 million were murdered, and Mr Espensen described how Rudolf escaped the gas chambers and was instead put to work on arrival at the camp as he was young, fit and healthy.

Vrba at school (front row, fourth left)

After five months Rudolf fell ill with typhus, and survived only because a member of the camp's resistance stole medicine to help him. This interaction introduced him to members of the Auschwitz underground, who two years later would orchestrate Rudolf's escape from the camp. 

Rudolf's resilience shone through and as he and a fellow prisoner Alfred Wetzler first gathered evidence about the atrocities that were happening in the camp, and then hid for three days under a wood store around which they had scattered petrol-soaked tobacco so that the guard dogs could not pick up their scent.

Making their escape to Slovakia, Rodolf and Alfred compiled a 33 page report detailing what was happening at Auschwitz and in June 1944 newspapers around Europe began publishing extracts, giving people their first insight into the atrocities taking place.

Our thanks to Mr Espensen for highlighting Rudolf's courage, determination and resilience to our students.

Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated on 27th January 1945, and 2025 marks the 80th anniversary. Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27th January each year and the theme this year is 'For a Better Future'. We hope that by talking about the past with our students we can all choose tolerance and learn from the past