Staff and students at Pipers Corner School were privileged to welcome Holocaust Survivor, Gena Turgel MBE, to the School yesterday. Mrs Turgel who is now in her 80s came to the School to tell her remarkable story of courage and survival.
Following the outbreak of World War Two, Mrs Turgel, a Polish born Jew, was forced, along with her family, first into a Jewish ghetto and then onto concentration camps. She lost five of her brothers and sisters in the Holocaust but amazingly, she and her mother somehow survived time spent at Plaszow, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
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Whilst at the school, Mrs Turgel told the girls that by sharing her story she hopes "that future generations will build bridges between nations regardless of religion and have peace." She also explained that the reason she still talks about her life and has written her autobiography, "I Light a Candle", is to help make sure that the atrocities are not forgotten and that by doing so people are never made to suffer in such a way again.
In anticipation of Mrs Turgel's visit the UIV (Year 9) girls had been asked in their lessons to prepare a creative response to the Holocaust. They each went about this task in variety of ways including artwork and poetry. Three of the girls who had chosen to make their responses through music performed their piano compositions before and after Mrs Turgel's talk and explained to her the thought processes behind their work. The pieces by Harriet Phillips, Annabel Hobden and Charlotte Wilding each attempted to evoke the pain and fear of the Jewish community through haunting melodies and variations in tempo, volume and key.
Mrs Nicola Gledhill, Head of Religious Studies at Pipers said, "It is a real privilege to have Gena here with us today. We are extremely grateful to her for sharing what must be very painful memories. Listening to Gena's personal experiences has really brought home to the girls the disturbing consequences of extremism and racism."
**ENDS**
For more information contact:
Fran Knight, Marketing and Communications Manager, Pipers Corner School. Telephone 01494 719 850 or email fknight@piperscorner.co.uk
Picture shows:
Mrs Turgel talking to the assembled girls