Faith

Holocaust Memorial Day is also seen as a chance to remember all those who have been persecuted by prejudice across the world and lost their lives in mass genocide.

It is held each year on 27 January – the anniversary of the date of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

BBC Radio Berkshire's Clare Catford spoke to a Berkshire teacher who takes groups of children to Auschwitz four or five times a year.

Sam Hunt is assistant head of Sandhurst Comprehensive school and has been awarded the prestigious Anne Frank award, for her work taking pupils across to the Anne Frank museum and teaching them about the Holocaust.

She says that she feels it's her duty as a teacher to share with children the horrors of history.

"As educators I think it's important that we inspire children to be the change that they want to be in the world.

Local Teacher Sam Hunt

"Auschwitz truly is a vision of Hell but I believe that its so important that children go and see the site for themselves."

Sam is also adamant that lessons should be learnt from the horrors of 60 years ago and that children should be proactive in their response.

"If we allow this hatred to remain unchecked then we will have another situation again, we must stand up and we must all fight against prejudice."

"I think its human nature for us to blame other people, especially at a time of increased financial hardship but that is something we must all fight against."

The message of Holocaust Memorial Day this year is ‘Stand Up to Hatred’ and Sam says that is a mantra that she passionately believes in.

"Hatred is a virus, its something that seeks to infect one person after another after another, and if good people don’t stand up and say 'this is not going to happen in my town, in my society' then the haters win and it will grow and it will beat us."

In 1991 the Holocaust became part of the GCSE history syllabus; schoolchildren study it from year 9. It is often also studied as part of religion and citizenship and Sam believes it forms a valuable part of a Child's education.

"Visiting Auschwitz for young people can be a life-changing event. Children are given the stark reminder of what happens when good people do nothing in the face of hatred and oppression."

She recalled what one pupil wrote in a piece of written work after returning from a visit to the Concentration Camp.

"I remember one child wrote; “The greatest thing I learnt from visiting Auschwitz is that it is what we do, that ultimately destines who we are.

"Standing on those train tracks where so many people lives had been ended, I vowed that I would always stand up for what is right and I will never again stand by and watch whilst people are oppressed and hurt.

Auschwitz: Barbed wire and barbarism

"Standing on those train tracks changed my life for ever."

For the past two years the government has paid for two students per secondary school to visit Auschwitz, while the Holocaust Educational Trust runs visits for up to 90 pairs of students a time.

Meanwhile Sam has taken it upon herself to take as many children as possible to the Concentration Camp and she says that it usually has a profound effect.

"I have the privilege of working with teenagers every day. Young People today get a very bad press but actually in my experience, a lot of them are fantastic human beings who want to change their world and do positive things for us all.

"The first time I visited Auschwitz I made a promise to the people who died there I spoke aloud, people must have thought I was crazy, but I swore out loud that I will dedicate my life to the fight against racial prejudice and that is a promise I take very seriously."

"I work in Rwanda, I go every year I work for a charity called  'SURF Survivors Fund' which supports children who were orphaned by the 1994 genocide.

"After the Holocaust the world vowed that never again would we allow this to happen. But that was a hollow promise, the world has stood by again and again, we have let this happen, In Cambodia, Rwanda and even today in the Sudan we have let it happen.

"I feel that it is my human responsibility to do whatever I can to ensure that racism does not remain unchecked, that there are good people who stand up and say that we don't want this in our society, look where it leads to.

"I feel that is my responsibility and ultimately the responsibility of all of us."

Sam is not from the Jewish community herself and says that the Holocaust is something that touches people from right across the religious spectrum.

"Yes the Holocaust was a Jewish tragedy, but it is also a human tragedy, it’s the greatest example of man's in humanity to man and we continue to see it today."

Join Clare Catford on BBC Radio Berkshire to hear more local people discussing their life and their faith every Sunday morning from 6am - 9am.