Year 10 historians are currently studying Nazi Germany, and this week spent time studying resources from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “Fragility of Freedom”.  Students explored cross-curricular links, reading survivor poems and other literature. One in particular stood out: “Man was born to mourn” by Robert Burns. Survivor Henry Wuga, who settled in Scotland after being evacuated from Germany via the Kindertransport in 1939, chose this as one of his favourites.

It is particularly apt poem for this week, in which we also commemorate Burns’ Night.

Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, –
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!