HMD 2018 Power of Words
Historyworks will be organizing the civic event for Cambridge to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 28th January 2018 and providing an accompanying series of educational workshops in schools and events for the public.
Sunday 28th January 2018
The Cambridge Guildhall
Market Square, Cambridge,CB2 3QJ
4.30 pm for a 5.00 pm start
This year our theme for the HMD programme will be The Power of Words. The Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur show us how words have been used in the past to cause and inspire hate, to encourage and justify violence. But that power of words can also be used as a force for good.
You can Also download a copy of the 2018 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS HERE
You can listen to all the speeches and performances from the 2018 event HERE
Cambridge's Holocaust Memorial Day Civic Ceremony - Sunday 28th January
On behalf of Cambridge City Council’s Holocaust Memorial Day Steering Committee, I would like to invite you to the Holocaust Memorial Day Civic Ceremony on:
Sunday 28th January 2018
The Cambridge Guildhall
Market Square, Cambridge,CB2 3QJ
4.30 pm for a 5.00 pm start
This year our theme for the HMD programme will be The Power of Words. The Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur show us how words have been used in the past to cause and inspire hate, to encourage and justify violence. But that power of words can also be used as a force for good.
Harnessing the positive power of words is a core part of Holocaust Memorial Day, and this year in Cambridge hundreds of school students have been working with the poet, Michael Rosen, alongside the historian, Helen Weinstein, and the holocaust survivor, Eva Clarke. We will hear newly commissioned pieces by the poet Michael Rosen especially arranged for choirs to perform at the HMD civic ceremony; plus pieces co-created and performed by young people from across a range of Cambridge schools.
The HMD Civic Ceremony will comprise songs, readings, poetry and drama, all inspired and interspersed by moving words from survivor testimonies and uplifting words from groups actively campaigning for equalities and supporting diversity today. Our speakers will include Jo Ingabire, whose incredible story takes us on a journey in Rwanda from hatred to reconciliation, where she preserves genocide memories through literature to build a positive future. Also, Peter Lantos, who survived the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen to become a top UK medical researcher; in retirement recounting his childhood experiences in literary forms.
This event promises to be both moving and uplifting and is suitable for children from KS2 onwards. I very much look forward to seeing you there. It is free of charge and un-ticketed, however can I please ask that you arrive in good time for a 5pm start. The event will end by approximately 6.30pm.
For more information about the civic event plus the programme of satellite events please consult these NEWS pages at www.creatingmycambridge.com or contact Prof Helen Weinstein directly via email at historyworks@gmail.com
Signed, for and on behalf of Cambridge City Council
Jane Wilson, Culture and Community Manager, Cambridge City Council
Jane.wilson@cambridge.gov.uk t: 01223 457860 m: 07795 542512
cambridge.gov.uk | facebook.com/camcitco | twitter.com/camcitco
Disabled entrance is via the Guildhall's door on Peas Hill where there are lifts and stairs to reach the venue on the first floor. Stewards will be there to assist & direct all those attending: singers, speakers, performers, guests.
Via the side tab you can see the text for the invitation which will be sent out by the Holocaust Memorial Day Steering Committee at Cambridge City Council for the civic event hosted by the Mayor of Cambridge.
Practical information: The closest parking for bikes is on Peas Hill or in bike racks outside the Guildhall on Market Square. The closest parking for cars is in the Grand Arcade car park off Downing Street. The closest parking for disabled drivers will be King's Parade, or Bene't Street, or on the Market Square itself behind Great St Mary's.
Map:
https://map.cam.ac.uk/The+Guildhall#52.204686,0.119309,17
Programme
You can Also download a copy of this year's PROGRAMME OF EVENTS HERE
Speakers for the Holocaust Memorial Day Programme in Cambridge 2018
Historyworks has organized for a range of speakers for workshops in schools and to speak at the public events for the Holocaust Memorial Day Civic Ceremony and the programme of HMD satellite events.
You can listen to all the speeches and performances from the event HERE
Here you can read a bit more about the speakers and find links to their homepages and organizations:
MICHAEL ROSEN
Michael Rosen grew up with absences, family members who were talked about but no one could answer his questions about where they were and what happened to them because they did not know. Michael has written a series of poems over the years about his Jewish relatives who were disappeared to the rest of the family because of the Nazi persecution of Jews, and his more recent discoveries about their fate have prompted further poems about racism, migration, prejudice, and how to resist hate crimes, both words and violence, by filling the gaps and recognizing and answering questions about the absences. Using the power of words, Michael has created a resource with Historyworks of 15 poems for our HMD creative writing school workshops which you can find here and you are welcome to use as a resource to explore in the classroom or in community discussion groups:
https://audioboom.com/playlists/4613930-michael-rosen-poems-hmd
JO INGABIRE
Jo Ingabire was born in 1989 in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. Jo had a happy early childhood with her mother, father and five siblings. Neighbours in Jo's community were akin to family, and everyone played together in the street and in one another's homes. Everything changed in 1994 when tensions rose between Hutu and Tutsi when the Hutus took over the radio waves and spread messages using songs and slogans to dehumise Tutsis calling them 'cockroaches' and playing anti-Tutsi songs. She was just five years old when her family were murdered in their home in Kigali by their neighbours who were influenced by propaganda. On 9 April, 6 Hutu men came to Jo's home and gathered the family together, indiscriminately shooting until they thought everyone was dead. Lucky to survive with multiple gunshot wounds, she hid for the 100 days of the genocide in Rwanda with her mother. Today, she is using the power of words to share the stories of those affected by the genocide, and is active using literature to preserve genocide memories through creative writing in order to build a positive future. You can find out more about the charity which Jo Ingabire founded with Eric Murangwe called Survivors Tribune here:
EVA CLARKE
Eva Clarke was born in Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria , on 29th April 1945. She and her mother, Anka, were the only survivors of their family, of which 15 members were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Eva was lucky to survive too, because her mother had been working as a munitions worker in Freiberg, near Dresden, hiding her pregnancy, but perilously moved across Germany on a long trip north in wagons, reaching the concentration camp just days before its liberation, where the guards were busy destroying evidence of their murderous mision, with Eva born one day after the gas chambers had been blown up by the Nazis. Today, Eva lives in Cambridge, and travels all around the UK and beyond on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust, and she is giving inspirational talks to young people in Cambridge in our school workshops so that children have an opportunity to hear her story and ask questions. To find out more about the Holocaust Educational Trust and Eva Clarke, go to:
https://www.het.org.uk/survivors-eva-clarke
PETER LANTOS
Peter Lantos was born in 1939 in Mako, a small town in Hungary. But because he was a Jew he was deported at the age of 5, along with his family to a concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen in Germany where his father died of starvation. He and his mother survived and were liberated by the US Army, and they returned to Hungary. However, with the Revolution of 1956, Peter was again facing prejudice and persecution and although he was banned from further studying medicine because he was 'blacklisted' in Communist states, he managed to get to London on a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship. This has resulted in a star medical research career in the UK, publishing over 500 scientific papers on brain tumours and Parkinsons, Altzheimers and other dementias. Peter's medical research on the brain has not only been recognized by international awards, but there is a diagnostic hallmark for a Parkinson-type neurological disease which is now named after him because of his breakthrough scientific discovery. Peter has also fostered a next generation of medical researchers whilst holding the prestigious chair of neuropathology at the Maudsley Hospital in London. And all these achievements and this dedication to helping others has been produced by someone who faced prejudice, concentration camps, and career obstacles early on in his life. On retirement, Peter has written plays and novels including an astonishing biography, recounting his journey from childhood to concentration camp, called Parallel Lines. As he says, there have been other medical doctors such as Chekhov and Conan Doyle who changed from writing prescriptions to writing dramas. It is in this spirit of his next adventure, that Peter has at a late stage in life picked up his pen, exploring the past, present and the future as an activist against oppression both personal and political.
TOBY HAGGITH
Dr Toby Haggith is a very experienced curator, film restorer, academic film expert, researcher and writer. Toby is a historian who joined the Imperial War Museum’s Film Department in 1988 and is now Senior Curator, with lead responsibility for the Second World War and Mid-20th Century film archive, including restoration and presentation. He holds a PhD in Social History from the University of Warwick and has published a range of insightful essays on film and history. Toby has been an inspirational innovator in outreach programmes for war museum and film archives having started the IWM Film Festival, and was closely involved in the commission and co-creation and recording of the musical tracks on the IWM DVD release of the digitally restored 1916 film, The Battle of the Somme. As Senior Curator in the Second World War team, Toby is sought out as an expert on war film internationally, and has recently worked on major film projects including the ground-building research and restoration and release of the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey and it is this film which he is introducing for the Cambridge HMD programme of events which will be screened on 31st January 2018 with a panel discussion following. For futher information go to our Screening section here.
GEORGE SMITH
George Smith is a film editor who joined the Film and Vidoeo Archive at the Imperial War Museum in 1999, and has been an integral part of the research and renovation team at the IWM. George has had a career with over 40 years of honing his expertise of editing in film and television, as an award-winning editor on series such as for Thames Television. He has a long track record of interest and expertise working on human rights projects and was the editor of , an important film marking 50 Years of UNICEF, and on the Richard Attenborough film in the series . More recently, George has worked on a significant restoration and editing projects at the IWM
George Smith is a film editor who joined the Film and Vidoeo Archive at the Imperial War Museum in 1999, and has been an integral part of the research and renovation team at the IWM. George has had a career with over 40 years of honing his expertise of editing in film and television, as an award-winning editor on series such as Crime Inc for Thames Television. He has a long track record of interest and expertise working on human rights projects and was the editor of To Us A Child, an important film marking 50 Years of UNICEF, and on the Richard Attenborough film in the series British Cinema. More recently, George has worked on a significant restoration and editing projects at the IWM including the ground-building restoration and release of the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey and it is this film which he will talk about on the panel discussing the Cambridge HMD programme of events which will be screened on 31st January 2018. For futher information go to our Screening section here.
School Assemblies & Workshops for Cambridge Primary & Secondary Schools & Colleges: 9th Jan - 9th Feb
The Director of Historyworks, the public historian Helen Weinstein is introducing students and teachers to the history of the Holocaust, suitable for KS2, KS3, KS4, A’ Level. Partnering with the renowned poet, Michael Rosen, and the Holocaust survivor, Eva Clarke, we are together leading workshops to encourage young people to understand the past and relate this to their present by listening and reflecting and using testimony from past genocides to write their own poems and narratives, songs and dramas.
Dates: 9 January to 9 February 2018
Time: Assemblies & Workshops to fit school schedules
Tickets: Free to Cambridge state schools & colleges.
Booking Information: Email to Helen Weinstein, Director of Historyworks, if you would like your school to be involved this year or next year = HistoryWorksTV@gmail.com
Further Information: http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/
Film for HMD Schools: Children of the Holocaust on Tue 16th Jan 10am-12 noon
Film animation of oral histories: Children of the Holocaust
Cambridge Arts Picturehouse Education Department will be hosting a screening for Schools of an award-winning animation called CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST which has been organized in partnership with HMDT. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A talk with a survivor. The running time will be for schools to be seated at 10am, for the animation to run from 10.15am to 10.45am, and then to follow a talk with lots of Q&A so that the young people can ask questions provoked by the animation and from meeting a child survivor of the holocaust. The event will end prompt at 11.45am to clear the auditorium by 12 noon, so that young people get back for school lunch. Do please scroll down to read more about the speaker, then how to book places, and then info about the film itself.
BERND KOSCHLAND will be the HMD speaker following the screening on Tuesday 16th January
Bernd was born in Germany in 1931 into an orthodox Jewish family. He lived through the growing severity of Nazi persecution of the Jews. In 1939 Bernd’s parents decided to send him to England as part of the Kindertransport programme. Upon arrival, Bernd was taken to live in a boys’ hostel in Margate where he had to learn English. When war broke out Bernd was no longer able to communicate with his parents and was evacuated to live with a family in Staffordshire. After the war, Bernd remained in England and trained to become a minister and later a teacher. You can read a full version of Bernd’s life story here: hmd.org.uk/resources/stories/bernd-koschland
Booking Information via Cambridge Arts PictureHouse Education Officers
Further Info on the Cambridge Arts Picture House Education Page confirms that each two hour event features a talk from a survivor, following on from a screening of the BAFTA nominated Children Of The Holocaust
Booking via the SCHOOLS BOOKING FORM submitted to Picture House Education Officer =Information about the Film
BBC clips are available to give you a preview of each oral history and the style of the brilliant animations:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01zx5g7/clips
Recommend for School Libraries, to accompany viewing this film, the excellent book, which is available as a printed animation, called Children Of The Holocaust
Fettle films produced the animated documentary series in partnership with BBC Learning based on interviews with World War Two Holocaust Survivors from Leeds Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association.
A series of 6 x 5 1/2 minute animations plus 2 minute interviews.
You can watch these here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01zx5g7/clips
These have been shown on BBC2 as part of the schools Learning Zone and were broadcast on BBC 4 during the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz commemorative programmes.
These can only be viewed currently if you are in the UK, as BBC are in negotiations with broadcasters and educationalists overseas to distribute, so clips are available, and the film can now be viewed at screenings as part of the HMD events in January 2018. See below the elements taken from the oral histories which were chosen for the animations.
Ruth Rogoff
“My father took us all over the mountains leaving everything behind and went to Prague.Hitler marched into Prague in March 1939. My father realised he’s on a wanted list. So he left my mother and went to Poland.It was extremely difficult for my Mother to be left alone with two small children. Street by street, Jews were cleared and any moment it was probably our turn.”
Martin Kapel
“In 1938 when I was 8 years old, there occurred what has become known as the Polenaktion. Early in the morning, we were all sleeping in our beds. The Nazis entered our flat. We were going to be taken away.”
Trude Silman
“I have a wonderful photograph, a class photograph of all of us here. It’s something which is a great pleasure to look at, but also extremely sad. Because unfortunately, the Germans killed many, many children. One and a half million innocent children were killed during the Holocaust. Why should innocent people, just because they were Jewish, be killed for no reason at all? And I look at these faces, I don’t know who survived and who didn’t. I only know that I survived.”
Heinz Skyte
“The Nuremberg Laws which came in, in the autumn of 35, legalised the anti-Jewish measures. We were no longer allowed to go to cinemas and theatres and be members of clubs. As a child, of any age, to be excluded from your peers is a blow. You feel inferior. And you question your existence.”
Arek Hersh
“I was fourteen. In the wagon was only a very small window. It was hot. We were so cramped, we couldn’t even sit down. Some people had some water, and some people didn’t. After 2 days and 1 night. Through the wagon I could see SS Men with dogs, barbed wire, electric fences. We’d arrived in Birkenau, Auschwitz.”
Suzanne Ripton
“Slowly, slowly, my Life changed. The first thing we couldn’t do, we couldn’t go out. You started to hear noises that you hadn’t heard before. It was really scary sometimes. As I understand it now, we were occupied. And all the shouting and the carrying on you could hear outside was soldiers.”
Film Screening & Director Q&A: ‘Oksijan’ - Sunday 21 January
‘Oksijan’ is an astonishing short film, a true story about a 7 year old Afghan refugee arriving in the UK. There will be a discussion afterwards with Edward Watts, Director of the Film. This is a free event to provoke discussion about the plight of migrants and refugees in our society today. Donations are invited to the charity supporting refugees at home and overseas called CamCRAG, Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group.
Date: 21 January 2018
Time: 7.30pm start
Venue: Bar area at Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge
Tickets: No tickets. Free. Donations welcome.
In cooperation with CamCRAG: https://camcrag.org.uk/
'Poetry Concerts' with Michael Rosen - Wednesday 24th January
Cambridge School students will gather together for ‘poetry concerts’ to receive feedback from the poet Michael Rosen and the historian Helen Weinstein and to share their creative work with an audience of young people who have all been inspired to compose their own pieces of writing by learning about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. Young people have been encouraged to see a blank page as a friend and to believe that words belong to them, using their voices to not only remember the past but also using the power of words to challenge hatred and prejudice today, to reflect on values of kindness and prevention of future tragedies.
Date: 23 January 2018
Time: 10am/12 noon KS2 & 1pm/3pm KS3 & KS4
Venue: Radegund Hall, Coleridge Community College, Parkside Federation Academies
Tickets: Free to state school participants.
Booking Information: Email to Helen Weinstein, Director of Historyworks, if you would like your school to be involved this year or next year = historyworkstv@gmail.com
Testimony Talk by Holocaust Survivor, Eva Clarke at 2pm on Saturday 27th January
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TALK FOLLOWED BY Q&A
2pm to 3.30pm in the Palmerston Room, Fisher Building, St John's College, CB2 1TP
Residents of the city of Cambridge are invited to join the College and University members to attend this FREE event. There will be tea and coffee served afterwards. Wheelchair accessible.
Holocaust Survivor, Eva Clarke, will give her testimony telling her astonishing story of how her mother survived giving birth to her in a concentration camp, born just days before Liberation. This event is kindly hosted by St John's College, Cambridge, in association with the Holocaust Educational Trust. Eva now resides in Cambridge and is very active working for Holocaust Education visiting schools and colleges, faith groups and community groups. In Cambridge this year Eva Clarke has partnered Historyworks HMD events to talk in Cambridge secondary schools, reaching over 900 young people, telling her family story of persecution under the Nazi regime, and explaining why Holocaust Education matters to her. This event at St John's College is a great opportunity to hear her moving testimony first-hand, and to participate in the Q&A at the end of her illustrated talk. You can read more about Eva Clarke on our website here.
Film Details for HMD 18+ screening of German Concentration Camp Factual Survey on 31st Jan 5pm-7.15pm
Wednesday 31st January's film screening of German Concentration Camps Factual Survey is part of the Holocaust Memorial Day programme organized by Helen Weinstein of Historyworks in partnership with Dr Toby Haggith, Curator of the Imperial War Museum who will introduce this important film, which will be kindly hosted at Anglia Ruskin University by Dr Sean Lang. The film will be introduced by Dr Toby Haggith and will be followed by a panel discussion with expert speakers including witness testimony.
This film screening of German Concentration Camps Factual Survey is open to all in Cambridge and beyond, and we request that participants reserve their tickets via Eventbrite here.
DONATIONS FROM WAGED (We will be supporting Amnesty International so please contribute £5 if on lower income and £10 if on higher income – or a random amount that you can afford to donate!!)
Speakers for the panel discussion will include Professor Peter Lantos, Professor Rainer Schulze, Dr George Smith, Dr Jean Khalfa tbc. Location: Lord Aschroft Building film theatre called LAB 003, at Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge. Screening at 5pm with discussion ending at 7.15pm. All welcome!
About German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (GCCFS)
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey is the official British documentary of the German concentration camps and atrocities discovered when the Allies liberated occupied Europe.
The film is unique and the reels were hugely important at the time in terms of documenting war crimes. The GCCFS is compiled from footage shot by combat and newsreel cameramen and covers the scenes at fourteen locations (ten camps and four sites of atrocity) discovered in Austria, Germany and Poland.
It begins with a prologue compilation of Nazi propaganda film and then deals with each camp or site of atrocity in turn, from Belsen, through Dachau, Buchenwald and other camps and sites of atrocity, concluding with coverage of Auschwitz and Majdanek in Poland.
History of the Film
The documentary was ordered in April 1945 by SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) and was to be the film screened in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich - shown to German prisoners of war wherever they were held.
Sidney Bernstein (founder of Granada Television) was the Producer of the film at Britain’s Ministry of Information.
Bernstein assembled a small but distinguished and expert team in 1945 to work on the project and this included the editors Stewart McAllister (acclaimed for his work with Humphrey Jennings) and Peter Tanner and the writers Colin Wills and Richard Crossman (writer, German expert and future cabinet minister).
Bernstein sought the help of Alfred Hitchcock, who is known to have given important advice on how the film should be put together. Bernstein described Hitchcock as the film’s 'Director', but given that all the footage had been shot prior to Hitchcock’s month-long involvement on the project and that he was not in England to oversee the editing of the rough-cut, it is more accurate to retrospectively describe him as the treatment adviser.
The GCCFS was not completed in 1945. There were significant reasons for hesitation which undermined the potential impact of this important film. From the start of the project, there were a number of problems including the practical difficulties of international co-operation and the realities of post-war shortages. These issues delayed the film long enough to be overtaken by other events including the completion of two other presentations of concentration camp footage to the German people and the evolution of occupation policy, where the authorities no longer considered a one-hour compilation of atrocity material appropriate.
The last official action on the film was a screening of an incomplete rough-cut on 29 September 1945, after which the film was shelved, unfinished.
Although there was an intention to return to the film in the spring of 1946, this never happened, and in 1952, IWM inherited the mute rough-cut of five reels of the planned six-reel film, along with 100 compilation reels of unedited footage of atrocities and scenes in the camps after they were liberated, shot by Allied cameramen. IWM also acquired a script for the voice-over commentary and a detailed shot list for the complete film.
In the early 1980s curators at the Imperial War Museum and a researcher working on a biography of Sidney Bernstein became aware of the importance of the material (at this stage accessioned and preserved but untitled) and the five reel rough cut was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1984, with the allocated title Memory of the Camps (pre-digitisation and without the sixth reel). This version was also screened in 1985; the five reels were broadcast on Frontline, part of the WGBH Boston PBS network. The commentary was read by Trevor Howard; Frontline concluding the film by directing Howard to read the last 14 lines of the commentary accompanied by scenes shot after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Restoration of the Film
A need for restoration of the copies of Memory of the Camps had become apparent after the film had been shown widely as a popular loan item. IWM believed that the project to restore the film could also encompass work to complete it, using the filmmakers' original directions (the rough cut, shot list and script for the commentary) and all reels of source material that had been assembled back in 1945 to make the film
The work to restore and complete the film began in December 2008, when the IWM team - including Dr Toby Haggith, George Smith, Andrew Bullas and David Walsh - investigated whether the sequences for reel six, as described in the original shot list, could be found among the 100 component reels of unedited footage, deposited with the rough-cut in 1952.
IWM discovered all the scenes listed for the sixth reel, except for two maps, one of which has now been especially created. As well as completing the film, IWM revisited the original masters and component reels, digitally scanning these and assembling the whole film from scratch. The work was carried out in collaboration with Dragon DI - a digital post-production company in Wales, UK.
The film now has the title German Concentration Camps Factual Survey - as originally listed in the Ministry of Information Catalogue of Films for Liberated Territories, published in September 1945. The original commentary has been re-recorded with the voice of actor Jasper Britton and an effects track created, blending the existing synch sound recordings made at Belsen with authentic Army Film and Photographic Unit recordings made on the battlefields of NW Europe (1944-1945), which are held in IWM’s collection.
David Walsh - Restoration Producer
Dr Toby Haggith - Restoration Director
George Smith - Restoration Editor
Andrew Bullas - Off-line Editor
Damon Cleary - Graphics
Jane Fish - Commercial Liaison
Corinna Reicher - Translator
Suzanne Bardgett - Historical Adviser
Kay Gladstone - Historical Adviser
Roger Smither - Historical Adviser
Jasper Britton - Narrator
Vincenzo Cannatella - Dubbing Mixer
The picture was scanned, restored and digitally assembled at Dragon DI.
The soundtrack was mixed and recorded at Prime Focus.
Further reading:
Toby Haggith, 'Restoring and Completing German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (1945/2014), Formerly Known and Memory of the Camps', in the Journal of Film Preservation, 04.2015, pp. 95-101
Toby Haggith, 'The 1945 Documentary German Concentration Camps Factual Survey and the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Camps'. The Holocaust in History and Memory, vol. 7 (2014), pp. 181-97.
Kay Gladstone, ‘Separate Intentions: The Allied Screening of Concentration Camp Documentaries in Defeated Germany in 1945-46: Death Mills and Memory of the Camps’ in Toby Haggith and Joanna Newman (eds.) Holocaust and the Moving Image: Representations in Film and Television Since 1933 (Wallflower Press: 2005), pp. 50-64
'Yours Hopefully' Poetry and Song Concert with Michael Rosen & Resound Acappella Choir - Wednesday 7th March
Date: 7 March 2018
Doors: 7pm Concert: 7.30pm
Venue: St Barnabas Church, Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2BD
Tickets: £10
Booking Information: Book via EVENTBRITE
This event will be an uplifting concert of poems and songs about the ‘Power of Words’, including some new poems and vocal arrangements, especially commissioned by Historyworks for marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 on themes around kindness, migration, racism, refugees.
The poetry written and performed by Michael Rosen describes gaps in his life, about Jewish members of his family who were missing during the Second World War, and how it was for Michael to find out decades later what had happened to them and to recall them through words means that their memory has not been erased from history. His poems also challenge racism and prejudice against migrants and refugees today.
ReSound Acappella Choir will share their favourite songs of hope, solidarity, celebration and connection, drawn from different cultural traditions, all sung in glorious resonant harmony led by Rowena Whitehead.
For more information visit: https://resoundcambridge.wordpress.com/
This event will be a fundraiser in aid of CamCRAG (Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group), a registered charity that sends regular convoys of volunteers with donations of clothing and other items to help refugees in Northern France and elsewhere. CamCRAG will have an information stall.
Hot Snacks and Drinks from 7pm including traditional Andean savoury empanadas (both veggie and meat) from the Vargas Brothers, and an Interval ‘Bring & Share’ cookies and cake table - chocolate cakes welcome! There will also be a fundraiser book stall for those purchasing books for Michael Rosen to sign. https://camcrag.org.uk/
"We are a group of volunteers who live in and around Cambridge who work to help the refugees in Northern France and elsewhere in Europe. As well as sending regular convoys of aid and volunteers to the warehouse in Calais run by Help Refugees, we also organise donation collections, fundraising events and seek to raise awareness of the refugee crisis.
All the money we raise goes towards providing aid or supporting our convoys: We have no employees, and are entirely run by volunteers.
Which means we always welcome some help, whether it’s joining us on a convoy to Calais, donating money, or giving your time in Cambridge."
If you cannot attend the event and would still like to make a donation to this great cause please do so at https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/camcrag
To find out more about the projects run by Historyworks in collaboration with Michael Rosen please find more information on our website about Creating My Cambridge: http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/events
Michael Rosen's Cambridge Workshop for Teaching Professionals in Cambridgeshire - Wednesday 7th March
Date: 7 March 2018
Time: 4pm Chocolate Cake social followed by 4.30pm/6pm Workshop with Michael Rosen and Helen Weinstein, supported by Historyworks.
Venue: Trumpington Community College, Lime Avenue (off Long Road), Cambridge CB2 9FD (6mins walk from Cambridge Guided busway Route A from central Cambridge Railway Station) FREE PARKING AVAILABLE
Tickets: £10 Teaching & Education Professionals. Fee covers refreshments plus two books: “What Is Poetry?” and “Poetry and Stories for Primary and Lower Secondary Schools” or £1 (ADMISSION ONLY)
Booking Information: https://michaelrosencambs.eventbrite.co.uk
In this CPD workshop, author Michael Rosen & public historian Helen Weinstein, will introduce teachers to ways of supporting students to improve their reading and writing of both poetry and prose. Historyworks has made a huge number of free resources with Michael Rosen for Cambridgeshire schools, which we will showcase at the event. All participants will receive two signed books from Michael Rosen, the latter recently published, aimed at primary and early secondary school teachers. Teachers will be taken through Michael’s guidance about how students can be encouraged to embrace reading and also improve the content of their writing by evaluating their narrative ingredients using his top tips. Helen Weinstein will showcase a variety of resources including history stories, walking trails, poetry and songs which have been devised by Michael Rosen and Historyworks, for teachers to use both inside and outside the classroom, to enhance learning across the curriculum. The main aim at the end of a long school day will be to inspire teachers, share practical tips and free resources, have fun with words in poetry and prose, and also eat chocolate cake together!
Etty Hillesum Events at King's College - Thursday 29th March
'IN CONVERSATION' TEA AND TALK WITH THE DIRECTOR OF THE ETTY HILLESUM RESEARCH CENTRE, WITH PROFESSOR HELEN WEINSTEIN, DEAN STEPHEN CHERRY, AND MUSICIAN JON BANKS
3.30pm for 4pm - 5pm Etty tea and talk 'in conversation' with Klaas Smelik, Director of the Etty Hillesum Research Centre in Middelburg.
You are warmly invited to a tea and talk 'in conversation' about Etty Hillesum with Professor Klaas Smelik, who edited the Dutch, English, French and Italian unabridged editions of Etty Hillesum’s writings and is editor-in-chief of the Etty Hillesum Studies and the Studia Semitica Neerlandica. Participating 'in conversation' will be Public Historian, Professor Helen Weinstein, the Dean of King's, Stephen Cherry, and musician Jon Banks. We will show unique photographs illustrating Etty’s writings and her life.
Tickets: Places are available via EVENTBRITE, and please book in advance as there are limited seats at the location in King's College (the Chetwynd Room is near King's Chapel so please ask for directions at King's Porter's Lodge). Because the 'in conversation' event is free, participants are welcome to attend for interest even if they are not able to attend the accompanying musical event in the evening.
KING'S CHAPEL EVENSONG
5.30 - 6.40pm Maundy Thursday Sung Eucharist in King's Chapel All are welcome to attend the special Maundy Thursday service or to take a break from King's to have dinner in town before the evening performance.
Tickets: No tickets are needed for Evensong which is always free for the congregation, and the King's Chapel staff will direct you to seating on arrival.
"BLAZING HARMONIES' CONCERT AT KING'S CHAPEL INSPIRED BY THE ASTONISHING WRITINGS OF ETTY HILLESUM, A DUTCH VICTIM OF THE HOLOCAUST
8pm/ - 9.15pm King's Chapel "Blazing Harmonies: The Spirit of Etty Hillesum"
This is the premiere of a performance of "Blazing Harmonies: The Spirit of Etty Hillesum" with readings from the diaries of Etty Hillesum selected by Stephen Cherry interspersed with dynamic improvisations from the acclaimed musical group, Zri. Tickets are available on the door or in advance via clicking online at the King's College Events page.
Tickets £12.50, £5 students (concessions available) via:
King’s College Visitor Centre | 01223 769340 | shop@kings.cam.ac.uk
See: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/calendar.html for further details
These events have been organized and hosted by the Dean of King's College Cambridge, Dr Stephen Cherry.
Photo (C) Collection Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam
Resources for HMD & the Historyworks resources of Poetry & Songs
Historyworks is producing some bespoke resources for HMD 2018 and we are also partnering with others, especially the HMDT (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust) and Amnesty for their fantastic lyric resources 'Words That Burn' suitable for our 'Power of Words' theme.
MICHAEL ROSEN POEMS ON THEMES TO FIT WITH HMD
Michael has created a resource with Historyworks of 15 poems for our HMD creative writing school workshops which you can find here and you are welcome to use as a resource to explore in the classroom or in community discussion groups:
HMD EDUCATION OUTREACH PROVIDED BY HISTORYWORKS WITH MICHAEL ROSEN:
Schools can request to participate in our HMD workshops with Michael Rosen which interweave history, song, and poetry. For example, here is a link to a blog about one of our HMD poetry events for schools in Cambridge:
http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/events/2017/11/06/power-of-words-workshop-with-michael-rosen/
If you want to get in touch as a Headteacher or school teacher, please know that our history and poetry workshops are suitable for KS2 and KS3, and these are free for state schools, and charged to private schools. Please do get in touch if you are interested by emailing to Prof Helen Weinstein = historyworks@gmail.com
MICHAEL ROSEN NEWLY COMMISSIONED POEMS FOR HMD
Watch this space for the newly commissioned poems with recordings of Michael performing, and musical arrangments of Michael Rosen's poems suitable for classes to sing, or school or community choirs.
SONGS FOR HMD CIVIC CEREMONY, HMD POETRY CONCERTS, SINGING ASSEMBLIES:
To see the lyrics and melodies included in our programme for the Civic Event and suitable for Singing Assemblies in Cambridge schools, please go to:
http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/songs-creative/holocaust-memorial-day/
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL POETRY RESOURCES:
There are super useful ideas and free resources available online in Amnesty's poetry WORDS THAT BURN project:
HMDT (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust) RESOURCES:
See also online historical case studies, which you can search via genocide eg Rwanda - see:
Each student group can be given a testimony from a genocide survivor (using HMDT biogs) which are very helpful in their section called LIFE STORIES which include survivors from Nazi persecution, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur:
There is also a great project for 2018 to write a postcard to a survivor because students can then develop their postcard thoughts into a piece of poetry about the experience of that survivor - see:
Equality Pledge & Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In Cambridge we are underlining the respect for the UN Declaration for Human Rights which was drawn up in response to the horror of the 17 million systematically murdered with the persecution of groups by the Nazi regime: Jews, Roma and Sinti, Disabled people, Homosexuals, Political and Faith Activists. At the HMD Civic Ceremony we will be foregrounding the Cambridge City Council Equality Pledge and the UN's 1945 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you scroll below you can read the Equality Pledge, and the 30 rights and freedoms set out in the UDHR, with links if you would like to find out more about how you can sign-up to the Cambridge City Council Equality Pledge, and further information about human rights activism linking to the Amnesty International Website.
What is the Equality Pledge?
https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/equality-pledge
Cambridge City Council announced their Equality Pledge and invite other groups, be they faith groups or arts organizations or commercial companies to all join in The Equality Pledge:
"We believe in the dignity of all people and their right to respect and equality of opportunity. We value the strength that comes with difference and the positive contribution that diversity brings to our community. Our aspiration is for Cambridge and the wider region to be safe, welcoming and inclusive"
What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
The traumatic events of the Second World War brought home that human rights are not always universally respected. The extermination of almost 17 million people during the Holocaust, including 6 million Jews, horrified the entire world. After the war, governments worldwide made a concerted effort to foster international peace and prevent conflict. This resulted in the establishment of the United Nations in June 1945.
In 1948, representatives from the 50 member states of the United Nations came together under the guidance of Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States 1933-1945) to devise a list of all the human rights that everybody across the world should enjoy.
On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - 30 rights and freedoms that belong to all of us. Seven decades on and the rights they included continue to form the basis for all international human rights law.
Eleanor Roosevelt was heavily involved in championing civil rights and social activism. She was appointed chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights which drafted the UDHR. On the tenth anniversary of the UDHR, Eleanor gave a speech at the United Nations called ‘Where Do Human Rights Begin?’. Part of her speech has become famous for capturing the reason why human rights are for every one of us, in all parts of our daily lives:
'Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.'
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958
The UDHR marked an important shift by daring to say that all human beings are free and equal, regardless of colour, creed or religion. For the first time, a global agreement put human beings, not power politics, at the heart of its agenda.
The 30 rights and freedoms set out in the UDHR include the right to asylum, the right to freedom from torture, the right to free speech and the right to education. It includes civil and political rights, like the right to life, liberty, free speech and privacy. It also includes economic, social and cultural rights, like the right to social security, health and education.
A summary of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1: We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas and we should all be treated the same way.
Article 2: The rights in the UDHR belong to everyone, no matter who we are, where we’re from, or whatever we believe.
Article 3: We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.
Article 4: No one should be held as a slave, and no one has the right to treat anyone else as their slave.
Article 5: No one has the right to inflict torture, or to subject anyone else to cruel or inhuman treatment.
Article 6: We should all have the same level of legal protection whoever we are, and wherever in the world we are.
Article 7: The law is the same for everyone, and must treat us all equally.
Article 8: We should all have the right to legal support if we are treated unfairly.
Article 9: Nobody should be arrested, put in prison, or sent away from our country unless there is good reason to do so.
Article 10: Everyone accused of a crime has the right to a fair and public trial, and those that try us should be independent and not influenced by others.
Article 11: Everyone accused of a crime has the right to be considered innocent until they have fairly been proven to be guilty.
Article 12: Nobody has the right to enter our home, open our mail, or intrude on our families without good reason. We also have the right to be protected if someone tries to unfairly damage our reputation.
Article 13: We all have the right to move freely within our country, and to visit and leave other countries when we wish.
Article 14: If we are at risk of harm we have the right to go to another country to seek protection.
Article 15: We all have the right to be a citizen of a country and nobody should prevent us, without good reason, from being a citizen of another country if we wish.
Article 16: We should have the right to marry and have a family as soon as we’re legally old enough. Our ethnicity, nationality and religion should not stop us from being able to do this. Men and women have the same rights when they are married and also when they’re separated. We should never be forced to marry. The government has a responsibility to protect us and our family.
Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property, and no one has the right to take this away from us without a fair reason.
Article 18: Everyone has the freedom to think or believe what they want, including the right to religious belief. We have the right to change our beliefs or religion at any time, and the right to publicly or privately practise our chosen religion, alone or with others.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to their own opinions, and to be able to express them freely. We should have the right to share our ideas with who we want, and in whichever way we choose.
Article 20: We should all have the right to form groups and organise peaceful meetings. Nobody should be forced to belong to a group if they don’t want to.
Article 21: We all have the right to take part in our country’s political affairs either by freely choosing politicians to represent us, or by belonging to the government ourselves. Governments should be voted for by the public on a regular basis, and every person’s individual vote should be secret. Every individual vote should be worth the same.
Article 22: The society we live in should help every person develop to their best ability through access to work, involvement in cultural activity, and the right to social welfare. Every person in society should have the freedom to develop their personality with the support of the resources available in that country.
Article 23: We all have the right to employment, to be free to choose our work, and to be paid a fair salary that allows us to live and support our family. Everyone who does the same work should have the right to equal pay, without discrimination. We have the right to come together and form trade union groups to defend our interests as workers.
Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure time. There should be limits on working hours, and people should be able to take holidays with pay.
Article 25: We all have the right to enough food, clothing, housing and healthcare for ourselves and our families. We should have access to support if we are out of work, ill, elderly, disabled, widowed, or can’t earn a living for reasons outside of our control. An expectant mother and her baby should both receive extra care and support. All children should have the same rights when they are born.
Article 26: Everyone has the right to education. Primary schooling should be free. We should all be able to continue our studies as far as we wish. At school we should be helped to develop our talents, and be taught an understanding and respect for everyone’s human rights. We should also be taught to get on with others whatever their ethnicity, religion, or country they come from. Our parents have the right to choose what kind of school we go to.
Article 27: We all have the right to get involved in our community’s arts, music, literature and sciences, and the benefits they bring. If we are an artist, a musician, a writer or a scientist, our works should be protected and we should be able to benefit from them.
Article 28: We all have the right to live in a peaceful and orderly society so that these rights and freedoms can be protected, and these rights can be enjoyed in all other countries around the world.
Article 29: We have duties to the community we live in that should allow us to develop as fully as possible. The law should guarantee human rights and should allow everyone to enjoy the same mutual respect.
Article 30: No government, group or individual should act in a way that would destroy the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
To find out more about Human Rights issues in the world today and how you can get involved as an individual in the UK to support universal human rights go to: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/what-are-human-rights
