Children given chance to learn about Holocaust

School children in Cornwall are being given the chance to learn about the Holocaust from local people from the South West whose families died at the hands of the Nazis.

The group Cornish Stories of Survival arranges for relatives of Holocaust victims to share their family history.

Cynthia Hollinsworth, who lives in Carbis Bay, said she was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who lost close family members in the death camps.

She said by talking to school children she is putting a human face to history.

The Holocaust was a period in history at the time of World War Two (1939-1945), when millions of Jewish people, and people from other backgrounds, were murdered because of who they were.

Ms Hollinsworth said: "To hear something from someone who actually lives in Cornwall and has a personal connection to the Holocaust and is a human being who has hobbies like they have, and has grown up in a family in the UK, means so much more to them than reading something in a textbook."

Bernie Graham, who lives in Plymouth, said he was also the son of survivors who lost many family members.

He said the need for tolerance was more important than ever with both Jewish and Muslim groups reporting rises in religious hate crimes following the Hamas attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023.

"People find it difficult to separate strong feelings to what is happening in Israel and Palestine from antisemitism," he said.

"I firmly believe there is a small minority of people who are using what is going on out there to promote their own antisemitic attitudes and I would say the same around islamophobia as well to use and abuse the situation to promote those kinds of intolerances."

Mr Graham said that for him the main lesson of the Holocaust is to remember our shared humanity.

He said: "It's about being kind respectful, not differentiating between race and sex.

"People are people - be kind, be compassionate."

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