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| You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Workshops on Education / Workshop 6 on Education, "Testimony in Education" / Presentation by Dr. Kitty Hart-Moxon | |||||||||
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Report from Workshop 6 on Education: "Testimony in Education" Presentation by Dr. Barbara Engelking-Boni Presentation by Mrs. Renée Firestone Presentation by Mrs. Trudy Gold Presentation by Dr. Kitty Hart-Moxon Presentation by Mr. Ben Helfgott Presentation by Dr. Kitty Hart-Moxon Hart-Moxon, Kitty Presentation by Dr. Kitty Hart-Moxon I am not a historian or a professional teacher. My qualification is that I am a survivor witness with a unique experience which I recorded immediately after liberation as I realised then that memory alone would not suffice with the passage of time. My story is extremely complex. I was born in Bielsko which was near the Polish-German-Czech frontiers. Following the occupation my family spent two years in the Lublin Ghetto. Later I escaped into Germany posing as a Polish forced labourer by using false Aryan documents. I was betrayed, imprisoned and eventually sent to Auschwitz aged 15, on 2 April 1943. In my second year in Auschwitz-Birkenau I was taken to work sorting belongings taken from people on arrival. Because of the near proximity to the gas chambers and crematoria I was able to witness the killing process daily from April 1944 to November 1944, a period in which the greatest number of victims were exterminated. I was evacuated from Auschwitz in November 1944. There followed a period of slave labour in munitions factories, a death march and a lucky escape when I was one of a few survivors to emerge from an air-tight sealed truck intended to suffocate us. I was finally liberated on 14 April 1945 by the US forces in Salzwedel. I landed in England in 1946. I was appalled to discover universal disinterest and often antagonism whenever I dared to mention my experiences. This produced in me a strong determination to be heard and I decided to devote part of my life to this purpose. I started by giving presentations in schools, colleges, universities and to the general public as well as radio and television. Following this I published my first book "I am Alive" in 1961. Later in 1978, I persuaded Yorkshire Television to take me back to Auschwitz to make a documentary film. My idea was that the audience would see the daily dangers of camp life through the eyes of one individual. The film, called "Kitty Return to Auschwitz", was the first of its kind and proved a turning point in the strength of reaction it produced. Suddenly people realised that there had been silence on the subject for decades and began to want to learn more. I followed the film with a book "Return to Auschwitz". These two were to form the basis of much of my subsequent presentations. I found that identification with a single individual’s experiences rather than a generalisation, produced the best response from an uninitiated audience. There has been much progress recently in Holocaust Education but still there remains the need to improve professional teacher training. One of the main obstacles is the lack of financial support. In the past, Holocaust Education was often initiated by survivors on a voluntary basis and at their own expense, but soon survivor contribution will come to an end and must be replaced by professionals. In addition, more teachers need to be trained by fellow professionals than survivors could ever do alone. An excellent development in the UK has been the establishment of Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre, and other centres are planned for the future, but they all still depend on goodwill and charity. It is essential that these are located at accessible sites and have official government financial support. It seems a valuable development would be the setting up of an international fund to establish summer schools for students and academics to co-ordinate Holocaust Education and teacher training. We must not only think about the past. Genocide recurs in different places in the world today; that is why Remembrance must be ongoing, not just an annual event. In that way, education may provide a warning to future generations when we survivors are no longer here. >> Back to top |
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Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars
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| For information about this production and the Stockholm International Forum Conference Series please go to www.humanrights.gov.se or contact Information Rosenbad, SE-103 33 Stockholm, Sweden | |||||||||