Today, Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January), marks eighty years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and almost thirty years since the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia. For many years, the important work of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has encompassed education that takes a stand against hatred, encouraging each one of us to challenge all forms of prejudice and discrimination and – in line with the theme of this year’s memorial events - to strive for a better future.

Solihull School has worked closely with many Holocaust education charities over the years, welcoming survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen Belsen and Srebrenica to the school, to speak with not only our own pupils, but with students from schools across the Midlands. At the core of our educational offering, we hope that all Solihull School pupils leave us determined to build a better future in their adult lives - and to be upstanders, not bystanders, in the face of prejudice and hatred.

One such former pupil, Nigel Canin, is the Executive Producer of a captivating new film, Survivor, which premiered at MIPCOM in Cannes, in October 2024 and will be broadcast across Australia today on ABC TV . Survivor tells the true story of Ivor Perl BEM who, as a twelve-year-old boy, was taken with his family by the Nazis, from his home in Hungary, to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Pretending to be sixteen at his mother’s insistence, he was sent by Dr Josef Mengele to work in the slave labour and death camp and, despite illness and a 500-mile ‘death march’ he survived, settled in England, and decades later tells his remarkable story. 

Solihull School is privileged to have been invited to host a special screening of Survivor this Spring and looks forward to welcoming the wider community to join us in hearing Ivor’s story and to continuing the work we do in helping as many young people as possible to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.

https://survivorfilm.com/