National Holocaust Memorial Event
As part of our annual commemorations of the Holocaust the library and History departments ran a creative writing competition for pupils in S1-S3 on this year’s theme – Keeping the memory alive.
Over 80 pupils handed in a variety of submissions from poems, to postcards to letters and it was a very difficult choice to pick only 3 winners and 3 runners up.
S1
Winner – Easham Manzar
Runner Up -Diarmaid Leahy
S2
Winner – Lily Collins
Runner Up -Holly Edgar
S3
Winner – Amy Harte
Runner Up – Emma Murphy
On Monday 26th of January we are extremely lucky to host a holocaust survivor Ela Stein Weissburger ( www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/10/19/tem_a_conversation_with.html ) and survivor of the atrocities at Srebrenica, Hasan Hasanović ( http://hmd.org.uk/resources/stories/hasan-hasanovi%C4%87 )
Our competition winners will be able to meet and have lunch with our guest speakers in the library and listen to their important stories at an event held in our forum along with a number of other pupils from the History and Modern Studies department. The Performing Arts department has kindly agreed to provide suitable music for the event which is especially relevant due to the importance that music played in Ela’s survival. After the event our creative writers will receive their certificates and book bundles from Ela and Hasan.
We are deeply honoured to be associated with the HMD organisation in Scotland and this is the second year we will have hosted an event. It is both humbling and motivating to hear testimony from those who endured in such horrific circumstances and pupils and staff have been moved and inspired by previous attendance and I am sure that this year will be the same.
Further to this, the prize winners will be invited to the Scottish National Holocaust memorial Day event to be held on the 27th of January in the evening at Ayr Town Hall as representatives of Saint Ninian’s. This is a prestigious event and one which had a profound impact on the pupils who attended last year.
For me this was a very emotional night, and something I will not forget lightly. I am thankful to have been asked to go to the event and I am truly honoured to have been able to hear the stories of each individual and their experiences of the holocaust and genocide. These are things we as humanity cannot accept and we must learn from them, and address them fully.
Sarah McIlwham – Head Girl 2013-14
The winning entries can be found on the school library web site:
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/LibraryWebsite/2015/01/09/holocaust-memorial-day-competition/
