Earlier this week St George's International School hosted a poignant talk by Steven Frank, a Holocaust survivor. The School had invited Steven to address Year 9 Secondary students who are studying World War II in their History lessons. On Tuesday he gave a talk to Passage, a Parent Support Group, to talk to adults and children from the wider international community as part of their ‘Keeping History Alive’ presentation.

For more than 20 years, Steven has toured UK schools doing these presentations, keeping history alive telling his heart wrenching story complete with pictures and artefacts. He passed around the Jewish star which is was compelled to wear during the holocaust, this star played a huge part in dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as different, those that refused to wear the badge would be severely punished - often leading to death. Steven claimed his mother kept the badge because even at that time ‘she realised she was living history’.

He spoke of his journey from a happy home and early childhood in the Netherlands to his grim and harrowing experiences in the Czech concentration camp Theresienstadt where he was miraculously one of just 93 survivors from 15,000 children.

Steven uses his voice to Speak Up, Speak Out for all those that didn’t survive, particularly remembering his father who spoke out publicly against the Nazi authorities as well as working secretly to help those who were threatened by them.

For everyone involved it was an insightful and thought-provoking experience, which we hope to have the chance to repeat in the future. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Steven Frank and the project to preserve Holocaust memories, please visit the Passage website at www.passage.lu.