On 26th May, Mr Reynolds, Mr MacLean and Mrs Barbour were guests of honour at the presentation of an art work commemorating the Jewish children who were victims of the Holocaust during the 2nd World War. The colourful canvas was the result of a collaboration by Mrs Gollan’s English class 1Y1 after being inspired by reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and hearing about her visit to Auschwitz in September 2014.

You can watch the full presentation here:

Below is an extract from the script of the presentation, delivered by volunteers from the class.

The Holocaust is a contemporary issue. It cannot, and should not, be thought of only as history. It is therefore important to remember the Holocaust now because it is an example of how prejudices can evolve into something far more threatening.

Six million Jewish people lost their lives in the Holocaust. And these people were real: they were mothers, fathers, sisters, grandparents, babies and children – just like us. What is important is that we do not reduce these people to mere numbers. It was the Nazis’ mission to dehumanise and eliminate the Jewish people, so in this art work – in a small way – we have tried to counteract that plan and commemorate the children who died in the Holocaust.

In this year of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we chose the theme of Remembering the Children. They were the inspiration for the brightly coloured children’s handprints. The names of some of the one million child victims are written in the precious metal colours of silver and gold to pay tribute to all those who were murdered in the Holocaust. The title of the work – Every One Has A Name – is meant to capture the individuality of the victims and is an allusion to the poem by the Jewish poet, Zelda, which is called Everyone Has A Name.

It is thanks to the Holocaust Education Trust, The Lessons from Auschwitz programme and Ross High School Funds that we are able to present this canvas to Mr Reynolds as Ross High School’s permanent memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

Everyone present was very moved and grateful for the chance to reflect on issues relating to the Holocaust and Mr Reynolds thanked the class for all their hard work, respect and commitment to the project.