A SCHOOL had a unique visit from a Holocaust survivor to commemorate the millions of people who lost their lives in the Second World War.
Horizon Community College hosted a talk with survivor Dr Iby Knill, a 96-year-old Czechoslovakian-born Jew to mark 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz and was part of a partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Dr Knill spoke about her experience in Auschwitz, as she was sent to the camp on the day she was supposed to get married, and how she gave a promise to twins who were being experimented on by Dr Mengele to ‘tell the world what she had seen’ if ‘ever made it out alive’.
After the war, Dr Knill moved to the UK after marrying her husband Bert, a British Army Officer, in Bratislava in 1946 and now lives in Leeds.
Several year 8 pupils from the school, who were trained to give a guided tour of a pop-up exhibition on the life of Anne Frank, shared their thoughts on what they learnt from the pop-up - which tours the UK and is part of the Anne Frank Trust.
Tom West, careers and enterprise co-ordinator at Horizon Community College, said: “We have worked alongside the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Team in Barnsley to host something each year.
“This was the third talk we have had with an Auschwitz survivor and was the second time Iby Knill has come to the school.
“The reason we had the students talking was because they had been involved in the Anne Frank exhibition and they were asked by us to write a piece on how they felt about the story of Anne, how they felt after they had heard her story and what they are going to take from it moving forward.
“We have been really pleased to be the first school to host the Anne Frank exhibition and to do the tours.”
The talk, which took place on the last day of the Anne Frank exhibition tours, was attended by Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis and Mayor of Barnsley Pauline Markham, who both gave speeches.
