Mrs Oliver and Mr Molloy had the privilege of taking a group of 28 Magna pupils from Years 10 and 12 to the 2025 Holocaust Memorial Day Conference at the University of Exeter. The conference focused on educating young people about the Holocaust, its surrounding issues and contemporary relevance. Students had the privilege of listening to a keynote speech by Rosemary Schonfeld, a 2nd generation Holocaust survivor, who spoke about the experiences of her aunt Relly at Auschwitz, one of the six death camps located in Nazi occupied Europe.

After listening to Rosemary’s testimony the students got to experience a thought provoking university style lecture led by Dr Lucinda Fenny who has dedicated her academic career to researching the legacy of the Holocaust in Cinema. To end the day, students took part in seminar discussions led by academics from the University and were given the opportunity to use sources from the Holocaust to understand the diverse experiences and legacies of Holocaust victims. Some of the sources were from anonymous authors, whilst others were from authors as young as seven.

The conference ended by powerfully reminding pupils that there were many individual victims of the Holocaust, from all across Europe and encouraging them to pledge to work in their communities to challenge antisemitism and hatred in the world today.

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