ETERNALLY ECHOING STORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST Sue Mulholland, Director of Free Learning, reflects on Echo Eternal, a commemorative arts, media and civic engagement project delivered in schools across the UK
H olocaust Memorial Day provides time and space to learn, to reflect and to remember, and as part of ‘memorial’ Year 7 pupils engaged with Echo Eternal. We invited pupils to ‘eternally echo’ individuals’ stories and by sharing them throughout our school and wider community ensure they continue to be heard, to be understood and to be humanised. In the Music workshop, pupils worked collaboratively to write a song as a reflection of the testimony of Maurice Blik. They created the lyrics, melody and arrangement, and wrote a powerful song which tells his story, highlight- ing the theme of ‘ordinary people’. They also performed the moving Israeli folk song ‘Hashivenu’, creating a collab- orative performance with Drama and Dance. In Art workshops each student made a reflective ‘plaque’ responding to individual stories and the testimonies of Mady Gerrard, Judith Kerr and Maurice Blik; each part coming together to make a collaborative installation which will be exhibited in the Laboratory for Holocaust Memorial. Drama were joined by Echo Eternal artist and puppeteer Pippa Church to create performances in response to the testimony of Maurice Blik. The pupils worked on bringing Listening to the testimonies was heart- breaking and so important to learn and understand how the Holocaust affected individuals and humanity: it reminded us how much we need to be strong in character and not be swayed Year 7 pupil
moments of his story to life with some wonderful tabletop puppets.
We need to work together and to have empathy
Dance focussed on four key elements of Maurice Blik’s testimony, which all involved either a fruit or a vegeta- ble. All pupils creatively explored these ideas, before setting their own choreography in smaller groups. Both the Drama and Dance sections were then interwoven and performed together, with the beautiful singing from the Music group as underscore. ◎
Year 7 pupil Yellow star on my chest Goodbye to my home My mind was so clouded Feeling so alone People full of hatred People full of fear They stole my father from me and all that I held dear Chorus: We were ordinary people (just ordinary people) x2 I couldn’t save my sister death hung in the air Grief was raw in my mind Life was bleak and bare
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
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