In the last week of Term Two, students in Year 10 Social Studies were fortunate to be one of the few schools chosen by the New Zealand Holocaust Centre to receive a suitcase full of artifacts relating to the impact Hitler and the Nazis had on the Jewish communities in Europe.

Students have been able to look at the propaganda posters, the ‘Yellow Stars’ worn by the Jews, passports, and ration cards to get an idea of what it might have been like for the Jewish people to be persecuted, isolated, and treated so badly by the Nazis.

Here are some of the comments the students have made about this topic and their experience;

Pelenatita: “What I have enjoyed the most in the learning of this topic was how important the concept of human rights really is. The Jewish suitcase not only shows and displays itself as a suitcase at the time but puts you in a position of how the Jewish people would have felt when being raided to leave for the ghetto.”

Katea: “The poster tasks that we are working on now, contains significant information explaining what happened in Germany when they were under a dictatorship and how the Jewish were victims of Genocide.”

Skye: “Learning a lot about this has made me realise that life was a lot more harder back then. People were treated differently to what they were treated today, they didn't have as many rights as we do now and learning about the Jewish people with how difficult their life would have had to be like, for example with the suitcase having to try fit everything you could in there would have been impossible.”

Pua: “What I enjoyed most about this topic is realising how horrifying our history is and knowing that, to this day, similar events are still taking place. This topic has reminded me and everyone in our class how lucky we are. We learnt how hatred and racism can destroy many innocent lives. Overall, this topic has made me accept and treasure everything around me.”