A nine-year-old Richmond pupil interviewed a Holocaust survivor who is also her great-grandmother to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Inge Berger, who celebrated her 100th birthday this year, filmed the video Inge’s Story with her son and two great-grandchildren to share her account of the horrific treatment she and her family faced in Nazi Germany.
Her great-granddaughter Rose Bahar led the conversation about Inge’s harrowing experiences during the Kristallnacht riot and in the Theresienstadt deportation camp, and how her resilience and hope carried her through.
Berger said: “I don’t have too many happy memories, because the bad memories usually stick with you.
“The war broke out in 1939, I went home because the transportation had started to send people away to camps and my father wanted us to be together.
“You always have hope for a better time.
“I was in the camp for three long years, and when we went back to Bremen in August we found a small apartment, then we started again.”
She recounted her experience in the Czech camp with no bedrooms and outhouses only, working as a uniform seamstress and then in the bakery after being barred from education.
The conditions at the camps were cruel, and Inge’s grandmother died two weeks after their arrival due to a lack of medication.
But there, Inge also met a man called Samuel Berger, and with walks after work and smuggled flowers they fell in love.
They were eventually separated by different transports, but in 1946, he went looking for her.
She said: “I didn’t know he would be my future husband [when we met].
“He wasn’t sure if I was still waiting for him.
“But I did, and he stayed.”
They got married and had two daughters, and Inge credited her family as what keeps her going.
The video was screened to Year Four pupils and above at Bahar’s school, Hampton Court House, to educate the children on the importance of remembering all parts of history and to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January.
This year’s day held extra significance as it marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, centred around the theme For a Better Future.
The aim of Holocaust Memorial Day is to promote the togetherness of communities through education and awareness, teaching people from all backgrounds to understand signs of anti-semitism, prejudice, and Holocaust trivialisation.
As time passes and there are fewer and fewer living survivors, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust hopes their legacy and memory will continue among future generations.
Hampton Court House principal Katherine Vintiner said: “Sharing Inge’s incredible journey with our students fosters understanding and empathy while reinforcing the value of passing personal stories down through generations.
“For our pupils to hear a first-hand account of life in the Second World War, and survival of the Holocaust, is a unique experience.
“Inge’s messages of hope, resilience and fortitude are something that will certainly stay with our pupils for years to come.”
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has more information, and they encourage reporting cases of anti-semitism at CST.
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