Six survivors and child refugees shared their experiences of educating about the Holocaust when they addressed the final HMD event at the London Jewish Cultural Centre before LJCC's merger with JW3.
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who played in the Auschwitz orchestra, has taken the message to young Germans, many of whom "are quite traumatised because they don't know what their grandparents or great-parents have done".
She also recalled a particularly emotional encounter with a German boy at Eton "who asked for forgiveness. It was so moving. We both cried."
Joanna Millan saw herself as "a custodian of the truth", as so many films and books about the period were inaccurate. "It's really important that people should know that it wasn't just monsters. The Nazis could not have done what they did without the active co-operation of virtually everybody, not only individuals but large companies as well. So many people were involved."
Improved teaching of the subject had resulted in "more thoughtful and decent questions" from students.
George Vulkan said a recurring question was whether he could still believe in God - "a difficult one to answer" - and whether he could forgive the German people. He always made it clear that whatever his feelings about the Nazis, "as far as the present generation is concerned there is nothing to forgive".
Mala Tribich, Otto Deutsch and Renee Salt also spoke about their educational work and its impact. The survivors' contributions were preceded by biographical details of their "extraordinary lives", read out by Dame Janet Suzman.
In her introductory remarks, LJCC's Trudy Gold said it was a paradox that while the Shoah had never been taught more widely, antisemitism was now more acute than at any time during the post-war period.
Other speakers included Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer, who noted that recent events in France demonstrated that the lessons of the Shoah had still to be learned. Hatred and scapegoating continued and it was imperative to oppose the singling out of a community as a source of problems.
