On Thursday, Epsom pupils will have the privilege of hearing the first-hand account of Holocaust Survivor, Mr Ivan Shaw.
2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen, a concentration camp that played a significant role in the Holocaust. Between 1940-45 19,700 prisoners of war died at the POW camp housed at the site, while an estimated 52,000 civilians – mainly Jews – died at the camp between 1943-45.
As time passes, the opportunity to hear from people with direct experience of the horrors of the Holocaust grow increasingly rare. It is therefore a huge honour to have the opportunity to hear from Mr Shaw, whose parents were killed during the war and who himself was imprisoned by the Gestapo aged just five-years-old.
Ivan’s mother, Gertrude, died at Bergen-Belsen, his father, Andor, at Buchenwald. Ivan only survived the holocaust thanks to the kindness and protection of friends and family, who sheltered him and constantly moved him from one hiding place to the next in his hometown of Novi Sad, in former-Yugoslavia (now Serbia).
He moved to England following the war, and now has three children and six grandchildren.
The talk will take place on Thursday 8 October, 4.15-6pm.
Mrs Keyte and Mr Fernie will email students with details of how to attend the talk in the next few days.
Below is a short film made by the Holocaust Education Trust, the charity that has made Mr Shaw’s talk possible.
