On 15 January 2012 Eva Clarke, a holocaust survivor was met by all of the year 10 pupils eager to hear her story. This is her fourth visit to Sullivan and she has spoken of her ordeal on many occasions so Eva has already developed excellent story telling skills. We hung on her every word in absolute silence as the story of her and her family’s experience of the holocaust unfolded, accompanied by a slide show that added to the atmosphere.
We were fascinated to hear about the horrors of the concentration camps; Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Terezin. Each camp was a different experience and a different example of how cruel the Nazis were. Everyone was in awe of the strength, determination and will-power of Eva and Eva’s mother, Anka to survive their experience.
After the tale, Eva took questions and gave detailed answers on many aspects of her story. Eva helped us understand this part of history from her first hand account, better than we could have ever done from secondary sources. I think she helped us to realize that 5,933,900 dead is not just a statistic but a mass extermination of individuals.
Thanks to Eva and the history teachers who made today possible.
William Preston Year 10