9G1's Jewish Museums Visit
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In Germany they first came for the Communists who spent seven years in a concentration camp. |
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Some of the girls with antique channukiahs, used during the festival of Channukah. |
Some of the boys with silver spice boxes dating back to the 1700s. |
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Annaliese trying a kippah for size! |
Waiting at the Finchley Museum to hear Leon Greeman. |
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| The Jewish Museum, Camden On Tuesday 2nd July 2002 a group of 25 students from 9G1, along with Mr Kerner, Mrs Dray and Mr Clark, visited the two Museums of Jewish Life in North London. Our first stop was the Museum’s Camden Headquarters where we were able to handle antique Jewish artefacts, some dating back to the seventeenth century, as well as learning more about Jewish practices and way of life. The Museum contains one of the world's finest collections of Jewish ceremonial art and seeks to present the history of the Jewish people in Britain from the Norman Conquest onwards. After lunch we moved on to the Finchley Museum, which is largely dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust. Along with the rest of Year Nine, 9G1 have studied the Holocaust extensively in both RE and History, however, we have so far only been able to show them books and videos. At Finchley we received an hour’s talk from an actual Auschwitz survivor, an absolutely amazing 91-years-old gentleman called Leon Greenman. |  Nikki and Leanne with Leon after his talk. |
| Leon Greenman -Auschwitz Survivor 98288 Leon Greenman, OBE was born in London in 1910. His paternal grandparents were Dutch, and at an early age, after the death of his mother, his family moved to Holland, where Leon eventually settled with his wife, Esther, in Rotterdam. Leon was an antiquarian bookseller, and as such travelled to and from London on a regular basis. In 1938, during one such trip, he noticed people digging trenches in the streets and queuing up for gas masks. He hurried back to Holland with the intention of collecting his wife and return with her to England. The whispers of war were growing louder and louder. In May 1940, Holland was overrun by the Nazis, by which time Leon and his family had been effectively abandoned by the British Consulate and stranded with neither passports nor money. Eventually, they were deported to Birkenau where Esther and their small son, Barney, were gassed on arrival. Leon was chosen with 49 others for slave labour. In his talk Leon tells the story of his remarkable survival, of the horrors he saw and endured at Auschwitz, Monowitz and during the Death March to Gleiwitz and Buchenwald camp, where he was eventually liberated. Mr Greenman was was one of only two survivors out of 700 Dutch people who were deported to Auschwitz. He said "I survived five concentration camps and an enforced death march through 90 km of ice and snow. "It was either God or pure luck, and I promised to tell everyone what could happen." Many people will know Mr Greenman from the current teacher recruitment advertisements, which ask the question Can you explain why? We were amazed by his physical strength (he apparently does 30 press up a day!), and also very privileged and deeply moved to hear a first hand account of the terrible atrocities which befell his family and many others. The youngest Holocaust survivor is now in his 70s, which of course means the current generation, like 9G1, will be the last to hear the first hand accounts of these awful things. The responsibility they now bear was made clear to them, that they must pass on what they have heard. A very worthwhile, thought-provoking day, which we hope to repeat again very soon. 
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 Leon as he appears on television. |
 The Concentration Camp Number tattooed on Leon's arm by the Nazis. |
