Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 27 January is the day for everyone to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and the millions of people killed in Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp On HMD we can honour the survivors of these regimes of hatred and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch: holocaust survivor and gifted cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is 93 years old She is one of the few surviving members of the Auschwitz orchestra As a teenager she survived the horrors of both Auschwitz and Belsen concentration camps After WW2 she settled in Britain where she became a founder member of the great English Chamber Orchestra

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Anita Lasker was born into a Jewish family in Germany in July 1925 She was one of 3 sisters As a child she was a gifted cellist Growing up as Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930s she and her family suffered from Nazi persecution

In 1942, when Anita was 16, her parents were arrested by the Nazis- she never saw them again Shortly afterwards Anita was sent to Auschwitz She lived through the worst extermination camp in history Her talent for playing music saved her life

The ‘Auschwitz Orchestra’ was an all female band led by the composer Mahler’s niece They played marches as the slave-worker gangs went to and from their day’s labour Their music could be heard by new arrivals who went straight from train to gas- chamber The music calmed the victims down, stopping them from panicking, allowing the SS to set about their work more easily

After the war Anita moved to Britain and married Peter Wallfisch They have to two children: Raphael Wallfisch is a cellist; Maya Jacobs-Wallfisch is a psychotherapist Over the last 20 years she has made a number of visits to schools in Germany and Austria She talks to young people about her experiences, as a witness and victim of the Nazi period

Nazi school lesson – ‘The Jews are our greatest enemy’ ‘My first encounter with anti-semitism was at the school I attended. I was eight years old. I was about to wipe the blackboard and one of the children said, ‘Don’t give the Jew the sponge.’ This is a long time ago, but I have never forgotten it. Then suddenly some children spat at me in the street and called me a dirty Jew. I did not really understand what was going on. One just had to accept that one was different. One did not belong to the master race.’ Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Nazi school lesson – ‘The Jews are our greatest enemy’ http://hmd.org.uk/resources/stories/anita-lasker-wallfisch

Anita says: Real Holocaust Education is not about re-telling horrific stories about how people were tortured by the Nazis Much more important is to find someone who is different from you, have a cup of coffee together and discover that you have more in common than you think!

In his meeting with Anita, Stephen Fry says he has learnt 3 things: First, Anita does not want to repeat and relive the story of how she suffered and what suffering she witnessed. She wants us to understand that it was years of propaganda that led perfectly ordinary people to perform acts of perfectly extraordinary evil. Second, she says it is vital to teach young people to learn how to question authority. Third, if there are to be no more death- camps, gas chambers or machete genocides then we must keep our ears alert to the language of hatred, the mad language that allows pitiless killing, the language that dehumanises both the victim and the perpetrator. http://keepthememoryalive.hmd.org.uk/story/stephen-fry-meets-anita-lasker-wallfisch/

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2014 Newsnight broadcast this film on Anita Lasker-Wallfish - a youthful member of the Auschwitz orchestra. Her son, distinguished cellist Raphael Wallfisch then closed the programme with Jewish Song by Ernst Bloch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u79aHGIASfQ

How do you think she would answer? Activities Imagine you are interviewing Anita. What 3 questions would you ask her? How do you think she would answer? What do you think she means when she says you should find someone who is different from you and discover that you have more in common than you think. Can you give an example from your own experience? What lessons can we learn from Anita’s life? Use the resources on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website to find out more about the Holocaust and other genocides http://hmd.org.uk/content/for-educators

How can schools help their students to become more human?