Class 5 Plant Holocaust Memorial Tree

Class 5 showed such exemplary, respectful and mature attitudes when Mr. Mark Michaels from the Jewish community visited school on Holocaust Memorial Day to give an extremely interesting and thought-provoking presentation about his family's experiences during the Second World War.

Mr. Michaels spoke about the awful suffering experienced my millions of Jews, Soviet Prisoners of War and Polish citizens as well as hundreds of thousands of Romani people, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, disabled people and other political prisoners during this extremely dark period in human history.

Pupils and staff alike were shocked at some of the awful statistics regarding how many people lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis, as well as the images of people burning money on the streets during the Great Depression years leading up to the war as money became worthless as inflation soared.

Mr. Michaels and our local Reverend Dr. David Gifford then joined Mrs. McManus, Mrs. Dark, Mr. Ponter and the pupils in planting a new cherry tree on the school field, kindly donated by The Hop Pocket Shopping Village in Bishop's Frome.

The tree was planted in memory of Jiri, a nine-year-old boy who was taken to Terezin Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic during the war before being transported to what is believed to be Auschwitz.

A HUGE thank you to Rev David for organising this very special act of remembrance, to Mr. Michaels for visiting our school and giving such an inspiring talk, and of course to all of Class 5 for the incredible respect and maturity shown in discussing such challenging and sensitive subject matter.

We are so incredibly proud at Bosbury to have such fantastic young advocates to help inspire and educate future generations to ensure such tragic atrocities never occur again. Well done to all of our fantastic Year 6 pupils.