Educational Origami

Yesterday Bob and Freda Narev visited us.

They, as children, survived the ravages and deprivations of the concentration camps and the Nazi pogrom against the Jewish people of Europe and immigrated to New Zealand.

Bob and Freda are ordinary people, who came to us to tell an extraordinary message. A message that we can ignore, a message that we can’t deny, a message that we can not claim is fiction. Bob, when asked in an interview by one of the students, why he had survived the Theresienstad concentration camp when under 10% of the 15,000 children imprisioned there had, said “Luck”, he does not know why he of the thousands survived, but he and Freda believe they must tell their story, they must do their part to insure that this NEVER happens again.

Listener Article – http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3546/features/10925/i_was_nine_wanted_to_go_on_a_train_trip_.html

Bob and Freda spoke first to the assembled year 10 and history students, then gave us 20 minutes of their time to do do a video interview. Their message is clear, honest and heart felt. They spoke of loss and survival, of acceptance in their new homeland of New Zealand and in an insightful interview of whether forgiveness is possible.

One comment from Bob stuck with me, it is attributed to Edmund Burke 17th Century Politican

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

If we cast our eyes, so empowered by technology, around the planet – there for all to see are the consequences of inaction, the consequences of narrow agendas and the consequences of greed.

Perhaps it is time for us to do something in:

• the Congo
• Darfur
• Wider Ethiopia
• HIV ravaged sub Saharan Africa
• In the poorest of the Mountain Countries in Asia
• In the Pacific
• and perhaps if we look hard enough in our own suburbs

The message for me was inaction is not acceptable. Injustice, prejudice, hatred, lack of understanding, racism and bigotry led to the death of six million people in the extermination camps  in Europe. Rape, murder and terror are daily events in Darfur. Ethnic cleansing is a term we have heard too often. It is a term without place that should never be heard again, should never be contemplated and never enacted.

What can you do? What can we do? What can I do?

As a teacher, I can help to shape my students understanding, through education we can prevent this. This is also Bob and Freda Narev’s message too.

We must remember, we share, we must explain and most important we must understand. Because through this we can make sure that such events are never repeated. We will remember them.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

• “For the Fallen” (1914), fourth verse – Laurence Binyon

http://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/

http://www.holocausttaskforce.org

http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/teachers/index.php?content=guidelines/menu.php

http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3546/features/10925/i_was_nine_wanted_to_go_on_a_train_trip_.html