IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
The Holocaust was a defining moment in world history, which shaped the contemporary world. Not only did the Holocaust fundamentally change the fabric of European society and culture but it also had worldwide reverberations, which are still felt today. As a result, the Holocaust is the only specific historical event that is a statutory requirement to study on the National Curriculum for England in History. In order to understand the history of Britain, Europe and the rest of the world students need to study the Holocaust.
Holocaust education can, if practised effectively, offer a study of history, which goes beyond the dry actions of states and governments, engaging students’ interest in the lives of ordinary people who were much like themselves. The story of the boys cared for in Ascot after the end of the Second World War offers a unique pathway for students to learn about the Holocaust, through what is effectively a local history project, by discovering the experiences of 34 young people.
The AHEP has produced a free teachers’ handbook Ascot’s Belsen Boys to support classes in Holocaust education as part of the Key Stage 3 and GCSE curriculum. If you would like a copy, please send us an email at: ascotholocausteducationproject@gmail.com.
Where possible, AHEP can help support schools by organising visits by survivors and their families.
Memorial stone in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The families of a number of the boys cared for at Ascot were murdered at the extermination camp. Photo: Tim Judah.
HOW DO ASCOT’S BELSEN BOYS FIT INTO THE CURRICULUM?
The free teachers’ handbook Ascot’s Belsen Boys fits with content requirements in the National Curriculum of England in Key Stage 3, where the study of the Holocaust is a statutory requirement in schools that follow the National Curriculum.
The teaching programme Ascot’s Belsen Boys involves the use and development of key historical skills such as chronological awareness, identification of links between different events, places and people and critical evaluation and interpretation of different types of historical sources
Statistics can be impersonal and difficult, if not impossible to grasp, and the stories of the boys who came to Ascot can humanise events that may seem distant to students. All of the boys who have given testimonies or interviews, talk of the their family life before the war in such a way that will remind students of the common humanity of those who would later become victims from countries across Europe. The survivors also describe their post-war life in Ascot, which will help students identify with them, as they describe places that the students will know from their everyday lives.
The pots and pans brought on the deportation trains on show in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Photo: Tim Judah.
IN MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES
The AHEP is setting up a permanent exhibition in two local museums in Windsor and Maidenhead and organising the creation of a mobile exhibition, which will tour libraries in the borough. If you would like to be involved in the process or put on an exhibition in your locality, please contact AHEP by sending us an email at: ascotholocausteducationproject@gmail.com.
EVENTS AND TALKS
The AHEP organises talks and events. If you would like to be kept up to date on our programme, please become at AHEP member. If you would like to invite a speaker, please contact us at: ascotholocausteducationproject@gmail.com
Memorial stone at the Sobibor extermination camp. Photo: Tim Judah