/ Children and Families
Manchester Town Hall
PO Box 532
Manchester
M60 2LA
Circular letter
To: Head Teachers and Principals of all Secondary Schools including Academies / To reply please contact:
Amanda Corcoran
Telephone: / 0161 234 1078
Email: /
Date: / 1 December 2014

Circular Category:

Policy / Procedure/Guidance / X / Event
Training / Finance / General
Circular no: / 0825
Title: / Holocaust Memorial Day – Keep the Memory Alive
Alert status: / RED
Action required: / Book places
Contact officer: / Amanda Corcoran (Details above)
Attachment: / Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 Application Form
Directions to the Cornerhouse

Dear Colleague,

As you will be aware Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is marked each year on 27th January – the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity for everyone to learn lessons from the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides and apply them to the present day to create a safer, better future.

Each year’s HMD has a different theme, decided by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as a focus for educational and commemorative events. The theme for 2015 is Keep the Memory Alive.

This theme encourages us to consider how we ensure that the memory of the Holocaust is preserved once survivors are no longer able to deliver their testimonies in person. Teachers may find the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) resource How Should We Remember the Holocaust? useful in this context; it can be downloaded from the Teaching Resources section of the HET website[1].

Additional teaching materials and student workshops on the Holocaust Memorial theme are available by arrangement with staff at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Centre and Archives+ at Manchester Central Library.

Next year (2015), Manchester City Council in association with UK Jewish Film will commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, 27 January. We would like to invite a group of students of your school (suggested group size is 10 but this can be up to one full class) to the Cornerhouse, Oxford Road, Manchester for the screening of a very powerful and moving film followed by a speaker, both of which will bring the theme to life.

Film screening: ‘Nicky’s Family’

Director: Matej Minac

Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2010

Running time: 96 mins

The story of a unique and courageous figure, Sir Nicholas Winton and his remarkable rescue mission that remained untold for nearly half a century. Called “Britain’s Schindler” by former PM Tony Blair, Winton was the brains and organisational force behind the Czech Kindertransport that saved 669 children in the first six months of 1939, running operations from a hotel room in downtown Prague until the start of the war forced the end of the programme. A modest English stockbroker of German-Jewish heritage, Winton’s incredible story has only come to light in recent years. Slovak director Matej Minac, whose mother was one of Winton’s Kinder, has made a powerful part-dramatisation, part-documentary film, an unashamedly heart-on-its-sleeve tale of tragedy, hope and bravery against the odds.

The film highlights the importance of the theme Keep the Memory Alive. By combining documentary form with feature re-enactments, Nicky’s family offers young audiences a powerful account of this extraordinary story. The film invites opportunities for classroom discussion about the filmmakers’ choices in terms of research, purpose, casting and genre as well as offering stimulus to learn more about rescuers during the Holocaust.

This important and personal story will be complimented by a talk from Jenny Carson about the film’s significance followed by a Q&A session chaired by Rachel Burns. Jenny is responsible for the Holocaust Educational Trust's Initial Teacher Training and Continuing Professional Development programmes. An oral historian by training, she previously worked at the University of Manchester. Jenny’s research explores the post-war relief work provided by British Quakers, including their assistance in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and Sandbostel concentration camps. Rachel Burns, UK Jewish Film’s Education Manager, taught English and Media Studies in inner London secondary schools for over fifteen years before becoming Head of Education at the Holocaust Educational Trust. She was writer and project manager of HET’s Bafta winning resource Recollections – eyewitnesses remember the Holocaust produced in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation and wrote Film Education’s resource Thinking Film, Thinking History: The Holocaust.

The Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester will be speaking at the event on behalf of the City.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10.00am prompt (arrivals from 9.45am) and will end by 1pm.

If you would like your school to be represented, please contact the Council as outlined in the attached to secure your places, by no later than Friday, 9 January 2015. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so that schools have the opportunity to bring one full class if they would like, based on feedback and uptake over the past couple of years.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Corcoran

Head of Education Strategy, Access and Inclusion

[1] Teaching Tools can be accessed at www.het.org.uk/index.php/education-general/login