Headteacher, Mr House, delivered a series of assemblies dedicated to Holocaust Memorial Day, which fell on Saturday 27th January. Before the assembly, form tutors explained the meaning of the word ‘genocide’ to their groups, and explained the most important facts from the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.

In the assembly, students were asked to think about how millions of normal people had become persuaded to actively support the act of deliberately murdering targeted groups of people. The theme was ‘The Power of Words’ and Mr House looked at examples of how language can be used positively. For example, it can be used to motivate others, to comfort people at times of need and to communicate around the globe. He also asked students to reflect on how language can be used to incite hatred and dreadful acts of wrongdoing.

Mr House explained that there were those, even in Nazi Germany, that chose to use words for good and explained about the actions of the White Rose group who wrote and published leaflets exhorting the public to reject the ideology of evil. He also talked about the messages of hope and dignity in The Diary of Anne Frank, that has since been translated into over sixty languages. Mr House finished by explaining that the power of words is huge, and that it is all of our responsibility to use them for good.