Ruth Rogoff:
The liberation of Belsen had been put on general release in every cinema and people were asked to go and see that.VO: There was no question of me being too young to see that sort of thing. And I was totally and absolutely horrified as everyone was watching it.
And I just felt terribly emotionally disturbed and the feeling was overwhelming. I just couldn’t believe that these sort of things had happened and that my family had disappeared in that terrible way.
I have never got over what I have learned about the Holocaust, and what I’ve read. I mean, if you look around this house, you’ll see I’ve got a huge section in the next room of Holocaust Literature (people who have written about the Holocaust) and everything I do, I believe has an element that relates to it.
Not voluntarily, it’s something I can’t help myself. For example, if I’m peeling potatoes as I throw the potato peel away, I think about the girls in Auschwitz who looked for a bit of potato peel because they were starving.
Another thing that’s been left with me and my children and grandchildren always laugh about it. I’m terrified of being without food. In my car I always have something to eat. Now I don’t eat a great deal myself, but I always have water and I always have something to eat. And that is definitely a throwback to the fear of hunger.
However much you can learn about history, and of course it is important to learn and to think you’re not going to make the same mistakes again, the fact is we do, as human beings, as parents we make mistakes that we promise ourselves we will never do. I think human beings can’t help it, the frailty of the human being is such that we do repeat mistakes.
But I think, whatever people say about young people today, I think they are more tolerant. So maybe there is hope. I think humanity is getting better. Hopefully I’m right.
Video summary
Ruth discusses her memories of the Holocaust and details the horrors of watching footage from concentration camp Bergen-Belsen at her local cinema.
She talks about how the footage made her feel and how it made her reflect upon the tragedy of how her own family ‘disappeared’.
Ruth also reflects on how the Holocaust has affected everything she does each day.
This short film contain scenes which viewers may find upsetting – teacher review is recommended prior to watching with your pupils.
Teacher Notes
Your pupils could discuss what they think life within a concentration camp might have been like for people and how people were later liberated.
Pupils could research the social, legal and emotional status of the survivors and find out about organisations helped them during the time.
This topic appears in history at KS3 and KS4 / GCSE in AQA, OCR A, OCR B, EDEXCEL, EDUQAS and WJEC GCSE in England and Wales, and CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland.
It is also on the curriculum for 2nd, 3rd and 4th Level, National 4 and 5, and Higher in Scotland. It also appears in PSHE and PDE at KS3 and KS4.
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