70th Holocaust Anniversary

Very true, niggly. I too was thinking about Greece, where Tsipras might easily be seen as the saviour of his nation..Mr Tsakalotos (EU) said:

"It's going to be a very funny and dangerous Europe with very strong centrifugal political forces....it will be a final signal that this is a Europe that can't incorporate democratic change and can't incorporate social change."

Alex - I think we have to be careful what we let them watch. We need to introduce them to some things in a certain way, not just bombard them with it without warning.

Last October my OH and I visited my father's grave in Den Hout, where he lies buried with the rest of the crew of the Lancaster they were killed in. My seven year old grandson has been fascinated with where we went and the reason for the trip, and although I must tell him with all honesty what the story was and why it happened, at the same time I have had to be careful not to worry him as he is a sensitive little boy, and 'my dad' (as he puts it) dying in a plane crash was beginning to upset him. Also I have gone to great lengths to assure him that although it was a wicked war (they all are) it wasn't and isn't the fault of anyone who is alive today and that none of us must ever think that because it isn't true. I do think that the teaching of all the aspects of WW2 to children has to be very carefully thought out and that the showing of film has to be carefully monitored.

Tanith Anno and Loopy I feel the same as you. I can no longer watch anything to do with the concentration camps, or the prisoner of war camps in the Far East.
If and when my DGCs ask me about the war I will answer their questions as honestly and appropriately as I can.

Thinking about teaching in schools about WW2 and the holocaust, I remembered that even when studying for A level history we didn't cover it. Finished at 1914. In fact I don't think I knew anything about it until my ?30s.
Perhaps it was still too painful to recall for the adults at the time and they wanted to protect us.
My Dad had seen a lot of it too, and didn't say anything, except a few neutral comments.
I think teaching about it now needs to be left until O level age.

Although harrowing to watch I somehow feel we owe it to the survivors to witness their courage at returning to such an evil place.

Thinking, I can't watch any programmes that deal with such horror and grief because it upsets me too much is easy to say. Soon there will be nobody left to bear witness.

I grew up Merlot with hearing a great deal about the Holocaust and WW2 because of my father's experiences and those of his friends and family when liberating the PoW camps, so possibly learnt more than many of my age.

As I grew older and learnt more so the horror grew for me as I could analyse what I was seeing or reading, and I have visited Auswitz and other camps.

I just prefer to not watch the programmes and not because it's 'easy to say'.

Not wanting to watch television programmes is not the same as forgetting, Merlot.
I don't agree that we owe it to survivors to watch anything. I don't suppose they go there so everyone can see them reliving their agony on television.

The link with anti immigration policies is related to the commemoration.

I worked with 2 women who arrived here in 1938, they were from families who managed to get their children out before the slaughter began. If the UK had not welcomed those children, they would have died. This country would have not benefitted from them or the families they raised, all of whom continue to work and contribute to our country. The extended families of both women were wiped out in the concentration camps.

I've worked with a number of African asylum seeking families. Their stories were horrific as you can imagine. One family became foster carers, the father works at our local university and their 4 children are all training in careers that mean they'll contribute.

I know it's complicated and I accept our public services are under pressure, but surely that's the link to the lessons that come from the Holocaust.

It is all unwatchable - so very distressing. I dipped in and out of the first half of the 9 hour film on BBC4 yesterday and caught the last bit where they were reading out the instructions to a German lorry factory as regards the gas vans that were used in Poland. It was utterly horrific as the people in the lorries were described as "cargo" and "merchandise", never as people, with such phrases as "the cargo tends to move towards the doors as they are shut" - and much more that I cannot bear to think about again.

It all beggars belief.

My parents never mentioned any of this to me at all - and we did not hear about it at school. I found out when I was an adult.

I have mixed feelings about how much children should be told when they are small - they are not ready to take it seriously until later on in secondary school in my opinion.

The things that humans will do to each other.