REMEMBER

Immunity against hate

‘Remember’ is an ongoing FCHS production that keeps alive the memories of the horrors of the Holocaust and ensures that future generations never forget.

For some time now my colleagues and I have been discussing Holocaust education at our school and others in which we have taught; we all agreed that although the students' education was good, it would benefit from examining the Holocaust from a different perspective by using drama to explore individual accounts of the darkest period in human history. What better way, we thought, than to do it through the performing arts and devise a script that would achieve our aims of remembrance and further develop performance skills. The idea grew quite quickly and we realised that this was an excellent opportunity to travel and tour the production abroad (a once in lifetime opportunity!). Poland, in particular Krakow, seemed a natural choice - we have performed at Auschwitz...it does not get more significant or poignant than that! As a Catholic school, we wanted to embark on this important and exciting venture, not only because of the educational opportunities that it offers but also because of the life enhancing experience it will afford our young people for years to come! Moreover, through the arts, our students will be able to ‘educate’ others of their generation and ensure that they too remember…

Mark Sell

New REMEMBER Website needed

Can you help? Due to the continuing success of REMEMBER, we would like to start an independent website but need professional help to get it up and running. We would like to purchase our own domain and design a site that will help take the production to a wider audience. If you can help us to achieve this, please contact Production Manager, Lena santos, on 020 8445 0105 ex 248 or email tupi112@hotmail.com

THANK YOU

The production company would like to thank everyone who continues to support our production of REMEMBER - the parents, the pupils, the staff, the public. We have started a journey that is without limits; our message must reach out to a wider audience and we are only at the beginning of what must be done...

Thank you, especially, to all cast members, both original and current, who are at the heart of REMEMBER'S success. You have all contributed to making the world just a little bit of a better place. Thank you.

The production team.

REMEMBER II at JFS

Mr. Jonathan Miller, Headmaster of JFS, with cast of REMEMBER II

REMEMBER was performed at the JFS on the 29th February to many distinguished guests, including Lord Grevile Janner, and Year 10 students as part of their two day seminar on the Holocaust.

Performance of ‘Remember’ at JFS 29th February 2008

Our first contact with The Jewish Free School took place during the performance of ‘Remember’ at the New North London Synagogue, a week after we had returned from our tour to Poland, towards the end of May.

After the performance we met both Kate Lightman and Denise Sloane, teachers at JFS School. They both expressed their desire for us to perform at their school and from then on we maintained contacts to find a suitable date. Prior to the performance both Mark Sell and I went to the school to see what facilities they had and were overwhelmed at their purpose built theatre.

Finally the day arrived. The cast was worried because it would be the first time that they would perform in front of children their own age and, on top of that, all Jewish children. Questions arose in their minds: would they accept a performance on such a huge issue which dealt with the history that some members of their families might have gone through? We knew in advance that the date was very significant as it marked the end of their studies on the Holocaust and it was also taking place within the dates of the Holocaust Memorial days.

We were under pressure as we couldn’t have all our team coming with us to help us with make-up and changes of costumes, but everything went smoothly and we were treated like veritable VIPs.

We left very early in the morning and were treated to a wonderful breakfast; there was cereal, Danish pastries, coffee, tea and juices. We had a large room all for ourselves and Denise Sloane kindly offered to help us with the make-up. At one point their Headmaster came into the room to welcome us which brought the admiration of their staff. I noticed that they all addressed him as ‘Mr. Headmaster’; imagine us addressing our Head like that?

The first thing that struck us was the main gate of the school; they have security gates and everyone is stopped by the security guard before they are admitted.

The weather forecast was not great and we were quite worried should it rain, as the roof of their theatre is made of iron and we thought with dismay that this would seriously impede the audience from hearing the cast and the music! But as I wrote on another occasion, ‘Remember’ seems to be guiding us and there was no rain until it was well over!

Both Kate and Denise were slightly anxious because we had to finish everything within a certain time as it was Friday, the day that they start Shabat. They were also worried because our guest of honour, Lord Janner was late arriving but in the end it was decided that we should start without him. From another contact, Susy Stone, I had been trying to get Lord Janner to come and watch 'Remember' and hadn’t had any lack until then, so we were keen that he saw the entire show (luckily he only missed the first two minutes!).

The performance was a huge success and we were totally taken by surprise at the words of Lord Janner and their Headmaster. They both spoke with great enthusiasm and warmth and it was all the more interesting to hear the Headmaster say that it wasn’t until he married that he thought hard about the Holocaust. He was born and raised as an Englishman and no one in his family had gone through it. He praised the cast and congratulated our school for our magnificent efforts. Mr. McKenna was there representing our school. Lord Janer then gave a short speech and amongst many of the wonderful things he said, two in particular stayed in my head. The first was that he had never seen such a powerful play performed by children or adults based on the Holocaust. The second was that he said it was a play which should be performed at the Houses of Parliament. We were all quite elated.

I found out in the process that Lord Janner and I both share two similar things - when we start talking there’s no end! I then understood why I was told to pass on a special message to Lord Janner: that he should not talk for too long. The second thing we have in common is the love for languages, he speaks nine languages fluently!

We came back to our dear old school feeling very positive about what we had achieved. It was very pleasant indeed to see Mr. McKenna, our Deputy Head outside the school gates to welcome us back and to congratulate us all. He had left at the end of the speeches.

In fact, after the speeches the cast was divided into small groups and off they went to meet pupils of JFS to share their views, knowledge and experiences of the play.

Their school left me and others with a very positive feeling. They are extremely well organised and there is a buzz for learning. As children they were all very curious to see what was going on in our assigned room and many tried to peep in during their change of lessons. All very healthy curiosity typical of young pupils. We could hear some say how disappointed they were that they were not the ones to come and watch the performance.

Lena Santos

Remember II

at the Performing Arts Centre and Limmud

The full company of REMEMBER II at this year's Limmud at Warwick University

We are delighted to report that the new production of REMEMBER has been a total success and has reached out to more people than ever before; playing in mid December '07 at the Performing Arts Centre at FCHS for one week and then at the Limmud on the 23rd December. The audiences were extremely impressed by REMEMBER and supporters of the production said that the new version was even more powerful than the original, with the ‘Selection’ scene and ‘Mengele’s Victims’ scene in particular providing a greater dramatic impact. We were honoured to have performed to so many new members of the community that have been directly and greatly affected by the Holocaust and who found the production deeply moving. Survivor, Freda Wineman, who saw REMEMBER at the PA Centre, said that the production gives her and other survivors hope that younger generations will not forget the past and the horrors inflicted on so many human beings.

Similarly, at this year’s Limmud, the many survivors who saw the production commented on our young people’s commitment to the subject matter. Once again, all members of the audience were impressed by the overall standard of the production and the professionalism of the cast. The organisers of Limmud were wonderful and helpful at every turn. Three hundred people saw the show and sat riveted throughout. At the end there was a question and answer session for the audience followed by an informal chat, which was enjoyed by everyone. The compliments were flying thick and fast and there are now plans to perform at Beth Shalom, German Limmud and Yad Vashem in Israel. If you are in a position to help us to bring REMEMBER to an ever greater audience, please contact the Production Manager, Lena santos, on 020 8445 0105 ex 248 or email tupi112@hotmail.com

Remember in Poland

Senior cast members at the gates of Auschwitz

We are extremely proud and honoured to have toured REMEMBER to Poland, a country and peoples that were ravaged by Nazi brutality during WWII. We performed at the Groteska Theatre in Krakow and a Jewish Prayer House on the 28th May and, most importantly of all, at Auschwitz on the 25th May. The trip was extremely successful in every aspect and life enhancing for both teachers and students. Krakow is a very beautiful city and the Polish people are wonderful - friendly and helpful at every turn. As tourists we enjoyed ourselves immensely and we made lots of new friends from the Polish school that helped organise the trip and were our hosts. But it is for the performances of Remember that Poland will remain in our hearts for a very long time. Please, remember.

REMEMBER DOCUMENTARY

We hope you enjoy our 25 minute documentary about our trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It takes a few minutes to load and will start automatically; it is certainly worth the wait. If you would like to have your own copy (high resolution) please contact the PA Department and we will happily arrange for you to receive your own copy - details on PA Homepage.

Please click the Star of David below to view Documentary

Click here

plus click below for Audio Visual Presentation from original production of Remember

Click above to see short audio visual presentation

Mr. Yarde Martin's Tour Diary

Friday 25 th May

At eight o’clock in the morning, we board our coach for the final leg of our journey to Auschwitz. The journey began on Wednesday at 3.40 p.m. and ended in Krakow approximately twenty-eight hours later. Pausing only to drop luggage in our rooms, we were then whisked away for a pizza and an opportunity to meet our wonderful Polish hosts. And so to bed – around midnight.

We are tired! Even so, no-one moans, for we know how different it would have been for those other travellers to Auschwitz sixty-odd years ago. Theirs, too, was a long journey, but for them, it may have taken three or more days; we had soft reclining seats in a coach that was heated by night and air-conditioned by day whilst they stood in a draughty cattle truck throughout their odyssey; we stopped every three hours or so to use clean toilets and to buy food and drink but they were locked in their truck, with two buckets for toilets that were never emptied and no food or drink except what they had brought with them; we all reach Auschwitz alive – not so for many of them. When we draw up at Auschwitz, we know why we are bringing ‘Remember’ to this place.

Apparent chaos morphs into order as the set is built and lights are rigged. It is a much smaller space than we have used before, but we adapt and are ready to start at 1.30 p.m. The lecture theatre in Block 12 fills with a capacity audience that includes Krystyna Oleksy, Museum Deputy Director and Head of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (ICEAH), and Alicja Białecka, Head of Section for Educational Programmes, ICEAH. The cast and musicians shrug off every fatigue and give a very moving performance that is worthy of its setting.

Following the presentation, the Deputy Director pays tribute to the depth of emotion contained in the play and the extent to which actors so young could empathise with the sufferings of the Holocaust victims they portrayed. She ends by presenting us with some very handsome gifts: two copies of ‘Before They Perished’, an album containing all the photographs taken from concentration camp victims upon their arrival in Auschwitz and which were not destroyed when the camp was abandoned; two copies of ‘Auschwitz – Nazi Death Camp’, a comprehensive history of the camp from its beginnings to its end and beyond, to the bringing to justice of those responsible for its atrocities.

After lunch, we are given a guided tour of the main camp and also of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The weather, which began sunny and hot, has broken with a thunder storm during lunch and is now cooler and rainy – a more fitting setting for what we are about to experience. It is impossible to walk by the mountains of human hair, suitcases and shoes without emotion; my heart aches as I come to a display case of baby clothes and shoes and I call to mind my six-month-old grandchild … For different people it is different things, or it is horror piled upon horror, that gets to them. Tears flow and company members cling to each other in shared grief. But they do not want to turn away. They want to see. They want to remember.

It is quiet in the coach as we return to Krakow, where we meet with staff and pupils for a meal at, of all things, a ‘Scottish’ restaurant situated in the cellars of a building on one of the smaller squares in the old city – the most historic part, originally enclosed by the city walls. It is, for most of us, our first taste of typical Polish cuisine and leaves this diarist eagerly anticipating his second

Saturday 26 th May

Another early start. We are visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mines. We are slightly delayed as the traffic is stopped to clear the road for an impressive looking motorcade to sweep onto the motorway ahead of us. Unfortunately, we meet the motorcade again – at the Salt Mines. A Chinese Government delegation’s visit necessitates the closure of the mines to the general public and delays our tour for ninety minutes or so. We wait uncomfortably in weather that is, if anything, hotter than yesterday.

Eventually descending into the mine on foot, down a wooden staircase constructed inside a shaft, we begin our tour. The man-made caves are breathtaking in their size; our guide tells us about the history of the mines and we learn how the salt used to be extracted. In each cavern, a layer of salt is left; provided this is sufficiently thick, it is able to withstand the pressure of the rock beyond and no props are needed. The chief dangers in the mine are methane gas and fresh water. There are streams, lakes even, below ground but the water is fully saturated and cannot dissolve any more salt from the rocks around. We pass through caves that have been made into chapels for the miners; in one, there are wooden statues and altar screens that were carved four hundred years ago, yet look much more recent than that, due to the preservative qualities of salt. Most spectacular of all is the huge Chapel of Saint Kinga, carved entirely out of the salt and still used as a church today. It is possible to be married there, then have your reception in the restaurant and ballroom nearby! The tour is quite extensive and, having walked quite a way, we are glad to return to the surface in the lift – a typical miners’ lift. I think about adopting a Welsh accent and saying something like, “Fuel of Poland, isn’t it?” Wisely, I decide to bite my tongue. When the cage jerks into upward motion and achieves what feels like thirty or forty miles per hour, bouncing up and down on its thread … cable, I mean … my tongue is almost bitten through! I had not realised the entrance ticket included a free white-knuckle ride.

Emerging into daylight, we find that, just like yesterday, the weather has become overcast and it is cooler, though it does not rain. In Krakow, we are two hours late for lunch with our Polish hosts and they have already eaten. We have our meal and then, while the Polish students take our pupils around the old city, the teachers of the two schools take the opportunity to get to know each other better over champagne and strawberries. This is the first opportunity to sit back and relax on the trip and as such, it is very welcome!

The evening is filled with a return visit to the Polish/Scottish restaurant – for a Swedish buffet!

Sunday 27th May

Our first lie-in and breakfast in the restaurant downstairs instead of on the coach. After a little free time in the morning, we are taken on a sight-seeing walk round Krakow, beginning at the Barbican gate and the only surviving portion of the old battlements. We move from there to the Basilica of the Virgin Mary, from the tower of which a trumpeter plays to mark every hour; the tune, called the Krakow signal, breaks off at the same point each time – the point at which a trumpeter was struck by a Tartar arrow as he sounded the alarm in 1241. The climax is the magnificent Wawel Basilica and Castle. In the Basilica, we pause for a moment of contemplation and prayer. When I look out from the tower, beneath the great bell Zygmunt, I am persuaded that Krakow is the most beautiful city I have ever visited.

In the evening, the two schools meet for an historic international football match, a keenly contested game, from which Poland eventually emerges the winner by three goals to two. Man of the match was the Polish goalie who made several magnificent saves to keep them in the game. This is followed by another superb meal, this time in an American biker-themed steak house.

Monday 28 th May

After two comparatively relaxed days, we awake to a day which will see us put on two performances in two different venues. The first, in the Groteska Theatre, home to a well-known children’s puppet theatre, is to an audience of several hundred school children. On a large stage, with all the resources of a professional theatre at our disposal, we give one of our best performances. Lunch follows in the university cafeteria just around the corner from the theatre. Then it is back to the Groteska to load the equipment onto the coach and drive to the Jewish quarter for the final show of the tour. It takes place on the stage of a drama school housed in what used to be a Jewish prayer house. The stage area is similar in size to the lecture theatre at Auschwitz, but this time there is access to another room, which allows more space backstage. By the end of the second performance, the whole routine of unloading the coach, assembling and striking the set and packing it back into the luggage compartments is such a smooth, efficient operation, it’s a pity we do not have to do it any more!

I have noticed that today’s two performances have affected me more strongly, now that I have actually seen Auschwitz. Before, I had a mental picture drawn from photographs and written descriptions. Now I have a memory of the reality. When Elisabeth speaks of Block 10, when SS Doctor Kremer describes a gassing operation, I have seen the places about which they are talking. It does not make it any easier to understand why it happened, but the evocation of the evil that men did in that place is much more vivid.

Tuesday 29 th May

Today we have a chance to see a different face of Poland – the mountains. We drive to the south, close to the border with Slovakia and walk along a gently rising valley between steep wooded slopes, above which outcrops of stone stand proud. Before long we branch off to the left and the way becomes much steeper, narrower and rougher. We are scrambling up a ravine called the Krakow Valley, so called because its vertiginous sides are said to resemble the tall building facades of the city.

Alas, like modern day Grand Old Dukes of York, our guides, when we are neither up nor down, march us down again! Time has run out and we are denied the spectacular views that must inevitably be enjoyed from the top. However, it does mean that we can stop off on our descent at a little wayside chalet, complete with wood fire, within whose wood-smoky interior two picturesque Poles make and sell traditional smoked Polish sheep’s cheese. It is delicious and even more so when grilled, as we discover at a stall near the foot of the mountain path.

Our final dinner in Poland is a triumph. Still in the mountains, at a place called Zakopane, in the rustic wooden décor of a restaurant we have a three course meal of traditional Polish food accompanied by a folk ensemble (two violins, double-bass and accordion) playing and singing traditional Polish music. It is noticeable that there is far more mixing together by the pupils of both schools than there was at the start of our visit; there may be some tearful farewells on the morrow!

Wednesday 30 th May

The first task of the day is to take our luggage to the coach for packing, then tidy and vacate our apartments. Our drivers are resting before the journey home, so we walk to the Polish school, where we deliver two drama/music workshops to the Polish pupils. After some improvisation exercises, they work on a piece of choral verse from ‘Remember’ and finish by learning a verse from one of the songs.

We take lunch at the school and then, while the pupils play football (a far friendlier game than Sunday’s!), the staff of both schools talk of cabbages and kings many things, including the possibility of a return visit by the Polish school to London.

After this, photographs are taken, tearful farewells (see above) are eventually complete and we wave farewell to our new Polish friends and hope that it will not be long before we see them again.

Thursday 31st May

Early evening. Home. Sleep.

Miss Molyn remembers Poland and her heritage

My heritage has always been an important part of my life. Born to Polish parents, I have always been exposed to Poland’s rich culture and have travelled many times to different parts of the country. I realised though that my family history and what had happened to my relatives in Poland during WWII is not something that I had ever really discussed with my family. My time in Krakow and all the work I have done with ‘Remember’ has made me think about what life would have been like for my family at that time.

On arrival in Krakow, I immediately noticed just how much Poland had changed and developed since my last visit. Not only were the streets vibrant and busy, the sheer beauty of the city was simply overwhelming. I had some memories of Krakow but returning now as an adult, I began to realise just how much historical significance this city has and how important it was that we should bring ‘Remember’ to Poland and specifically to the city of Krakow.

It is difficult to sum up our week away as each day brought a new and wonderful experience for me, however, a particular highlight was the performance and at Auschwitz and the tour of the camp afterwards. It is something that I will never forget and I am extremely proud that I was able to be a part of it. I don’t think that anyone can ever truly comprehend what people went through in Auschwitz and during the Holocaust. However, for one day, I felt that I was being allowed a small insight into the horrors that those people endured. Walking around Auschwitz and Birkenau can be somewhat surreal and it is only now that I begin to think about and reflect on everything that I saw. Standing inside a gas chamber or wandering through the Blocks evokes emotions of horror, sadness, anger, disbelief and the repeated question of how and why this could have happened. It also made me understand even more the importance of ‘Remember’ and the message we are sending out to people.

Performing in the Groteska Theatre and in the old Jewish Prayer House after visiting Auschwitz made me look at the production in a different light and the two performances on Monday affected me even more deeply. Having researched and seen numerous images and descriptions of Auschwitz prior to our trip, ‘Remember’ always struck a chord with me, especially with my Polish background. Now I have real and vivid images in my mind - the words that the children speak in the production are associated with these memories now and the reality of those people's lives come alive each time they are spoken.

As a ‘British tourist’ in Krakow, the hospitality and warmth of the staff and pupils of the Polish school (our hosts) and everyone else who helped us on this trip has been wonderful. As I commented to Mr. Sell, my time in Krakow has made me more proud to be Polish and to be associated with that beautiful country. The week brought to the fore every emotion possible and I don’t think that I expected it to affect me in the way that it has. My love of Polish culture, the people and my heritage have been strengthened and it has been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding times of my life. I have forged some very close friendships with colleagues, I have been extremely proud of the boys and girls, but most importantly, I have realised that the ’Remember’ Company has accomplished something very special and significant and that above all, we are ensuring in our own small way that people REMEMBER.

Lena's thoughts on REMEMBER

“Y la vida no es buena, ni sagrada, ni eternal”

F. Garcia Lorca.

I find this quotation very moving, especially as its author was passionate about life; sad then that his life should have been cruelly cut short. Nonetheless, the brief time he was here he fought admirably for the rights of the oppressed through his extraordinary artistic talent.

The Holocaust has always haunted me, and yet I do not belong to a country, which suffered during the war, nor do I belong to that generation. I have known about it through history, but it was through literature that I really became emotionally involved. Later I was lucky, if one can say that, to hear of accounts relating to the war through my mother-in-law’s own life experiences. What was amazing for me, was that despite all that she had gone through, she had an incredible capacity for life. Yes, at times she was bitter, but justifiably so! Her first husband died at the outbreak of WWII, later she lost her baby-daughter. Her stories in a bizarre way inspired me to learn more about that period in history and, specifically, about the Holocaust.

It was therefore very natural for me to suggest to Mark Sell that we should do something relating to man’s cruelty to man – I had begun a personal quest. It would take many lifetimes to begin to understand the rationale behind the Holocaust; the more I read and hear from the survivors themselves, the more difficult it is to accept. For those that deny the Holocaust, it would take a monster to imagine it and fabricate it all.

Going to Poland was quite significant for me as well as my colleagues. I have been to that country many times before, as my in-laws are Polish and It is a country I have come to love and feel very proud to be able to speak its language - beautifully moulded within its grammatical framework and its abundant diminutive forms.

I feel privileged to have been a part of this venture and to have worked with such an enthusiastic group of people. What was supposed to be a 'school production' became almost a mission in our lives. I don’t think we were quite prepared for the support we have received and continue to receive. Moreover, we were not aware of the extreme significance of the play's message in the context of today's society. At times it felt as though we were dreaming.

'Remember' very much behaved like a precocious child, very demanding of its parents, eager for life and new ventures. 'Remember' inspired and guided us. There were so many obstacles at times and yet each time we came through. Is it naff to say that all those voices of the victims of the Holocaust are calling to us? I would rather choose to think that they are because they must never, ever be forgotten and become engulfed in a lost past, stuck in a dry page of a history book.

What better ambassadors to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust than a group of young children. They are the ambassadors for future generations who will maintain the link between the past and the future; they will keep the flame of remembrance alive. It was extraordinary to observe how these children grew into their roles; they became emotionally involved with the characters they played and contributed independently from Mark’s expert guiding to the growth and development of the characters. I think that in some way this was due to their exuberance of life and how they could not reconcile that life could be taken away so easily, in fact be stripped of its very essence: to be alive.

What has 'Remember' brought me? Many, many new things. The opportunity to work with a different department and coming in contact with pupils whom I would otherwise never really have known - and what fantastic beings they are! The opportunity to meet and talk to survivors was a real privilege. I found them magnificent; despite their horrific experiences they display such enthusiasm and respect for life. There is a lesson for us all.

Will 'Remember' go on? Yes, it will and yes it must. The message is far too important. And as I said at the beginning, this baby is hungry for life.

Soon after the rehearsals started, we began to hold short sessions with the cast about the Holocaust. I remember, in particular, one session which I was leading and we were talking about racial prejudice and intolerance. Mark then interrupted by bringing in Big Brother as a point of reference. There was I trying to be all serious! The children loved it and burst out laughing. But in fact I think that this element of lightness, which happened quite often, was a must for the children to be able to relax and feel free to express themselves and to ask questions.

We are very lucky in our school as we have had, for some time, a link with a survivor, Rudi Oppenheimer, through the History department. I invited him to come and speak to the cast. This was the beginning of walking on clouds. To be able to talk to survivors! People with whom, I must confess, I am in awe. In fact we all felt very privileged and there were many questions asked. We were then able to contact Mr. Roman Halter. An article had been published about him in my local paper, just at the right time. 'Remember' was guiding us. And then we were able to contact Mrs. Anita Lasker-Wallfish through both Mr. Oppenheimer and Mr. Halter. I felt very humble when I talked to them. I was amazed at their lack of bitterness and marvelled by their positive attitude to life. I thought again of Lorca’s quotation…

Company members remember Poland

Please click on the name of the company member in the table below to read their personal thoughts and feelings about Remember during our successful trip to Poland:

Louisa Brimacombe-Wiard

Scarlett Neville

Matthew Magee - The Heavy Black Snow

Danny Boeri

Luke Mazzamuto

Alex Greene

Dario Zavagno's PowerPoint

Philip Donnelly

Olivia Carabine

Matthew Kaminski's PowerPoint

Remember at the PA Centre

REMEMBER opened at the Performing Arts Centre on the 13th March and ran for three triumphant nights. The shows were extremely well received by the public and laid the foundations for our performance at the Arts Depot on the 10th May and tour of Poland in the Spring. All who saw REMEMBER were extremely impressed by the 'professional' production values and the standard and commitment of the cast. All the boys from FCHS and girls from St Michael's gave their hearts and souls to the production and every audience member was stunned by their focus and 'truthful' performances. Playing in so many varied and exciting venues will broaden the company's knowledge and develop their adaptability and performance skills. Moreover, it strengthens their commitment to remembrance of the Holocaust. Please, remember.

Remember at the

New North London Synagogue

Full company 'backstage' at the NNLS with Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg

On Monday 4th June '07 REMEMBER was performed at the New North London Synagogue in Finchley. As a company we were honoured and privileged to perform to many distinguished members of the Jewish community and other important guests. The venue was an ideal setting for the production's subject matter, particularly as many of the audience have been personally touched and continue to be so by the horrors of the Holocaust. As Catholics we hope we are playing a small role in bringing the young people of both communities together through art and education. The show was a sell out and another milestone on our REMEMBER journey.

After the curtain call the full company came on stage to attend a Q & A session in which our young people and members of the production team answered many questions from the audience - some demanded very thoughtful answers from the young cast and they responded admirably. It was great to receive so many wonderful comments after the show and gestures of support for the production. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg gave a marvelous speech in which he praised our courage. Thank you to all those members of the audience who supported and continue to support the production. Please, remember.

"What was most inspiring was the courage of these pupils and their teachers in exploring and opening themselves to the experiences and sufferings of another people. It seems to me that only this ability to engage imaginatively and emotionally with each others’ realities can save us from prejudice leading to hatred and war." Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg

Remember at the Arts Depot

Remember was performed at the Arts Depot, in North Finchley on 10th May and was a roaring success. The sell out show was seen by many distinguished guests from the Jewish community, the Mayoress, leaders of education in the borough and beyond, supporters of the production generally and, most importantly, Holocaust survivors, Roman Halter, Rudi Oppenheimer and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. All who saw the production were moved, many to tears, by the content and message of the piece as well as the extraordinary performances of the young cast. All of them performed with complete commitment and belief in what they were doing; seldom has this been seen by children of this age. The show was enhanced by Kevin Hoare (Headteacher at FCHS) and Roman Halter who gave very moving and poignant speeches about the need for different peoples to realise their collective sense of humanity and eradicate hatred and genocide from the face of the earth. Mr. Halter said, "this production gives you hope for the future and should be seen around the world." Please, remember.

Below is a brief account of the survival stories of three very remarkable people.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

Lasker Wallfisch is from a professional Jewish family, living in Breslau, then part of Germany, now in Poland and renamed Wroclaw. Her father was a lawyer; her mother a fine violinist; she had two sisters, Marianne and Renata, both a few years older. They suffered discrimination from 1933, and by the time war broke out their situation was desperate. "My father had fought at the front in the first war," she says. "He had the Iron Cross and kidded himself that it couldn't be as bad as it seemed, but it slowly got as bad as it could be."

Marianne, the eldest sister, had fled to England, but in April 1942 Anita's parents were taken away. She had no official notification of their fate, but believes they were murdered at Isbica, near Lublin, in Poland. "I'll never be sure what happened," she says, "but it is possible that they were among the people who were forced to dig their own graves and then shot into them."

She and Renata were not deported because they were working in a paper factory. There, they met French prisoners of war, and started forging papers to enable French slave labourers to cross back into France. In September 1942 they themselves tried to escape to France, but were arrested at Breslau station by the Gestapo. Only their suitcase, which they had already put on the train, escaped.

Her descriptions of life under the Nazis are startlingly matter-of-fact; it was lunacy, surreal. "Life was completely arbitrary. You didn't know what was going to happen the next moment." She says she never lost her sense of the absurdity of what was happening. Take that suitcase. The Gestapo were anxious about its loss, and carefully noted its size and colour. "I had been in prison for about a year," she recalls. "Then one day I was called down. A suitcase has arrived: could I identify it? It was my suit case. They stole everything, they killed everybody, but that suitcase really mattered to them. They had found the suitcase and everything was fine, though I never saw it again because it then went into the vaults of the prison and later I saw a guard wearing one of my dresses."

Lasker Wallfisch and her sister were eventually sent to Auschwitz on separate prison trains, a far less squalid way to arrive than by cattle truck. Less dangerous, too, since there was no selection on arrival. In the inverted world of Auschwitz, criminals were valued more highly than Jews. Better yet was to be a prisoner who played the cello.

"When I arrived, the girl [a fellow inmate, not an SS guard] processing me asked me what I did before the war. I told her I played the cello. What a stupid thing to say. 'Fantastic,' she said. 'You'll be saved.' She called the conductor of the orchestra, Alma Rosé. As it happens, they didn't have a cellist. There were crazy instruments in the orchestra - mandolins, accordions - but no cello, so I was like manna from heaven."

Playing in the 40-strong orchestra saved her - and saved her sister too, since Anita was able to supplement Renata's meagre rations. "As long as they wanted an orchestra, they couldn't put us in the gas chamber," she says. "That stupid they wouldn't be, because we are not really replaceable. Somebody who carries stones is replaceable."

Does she feel guilty about the relatively privileged existence she led? "You don't feel guilty. You arrive in Auschwitz and you think you're going to be gassed. But something different happens. Somebody gives you a cello and says, 'Play something.' Are you going to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't play here; I only play in Carnegie Hall'? No, you're bloody lucky, glad, surprised. Guilty, no."

By October 1944, Alma Rosé had died, the orchestra was missing her leadership and playing poorly, the Russians were advancing, it was time to leave. Fortunately, I don't ask her what happened to the cello. "I was interviewed once," she volunteers, "and the woman asked me whether I still played the cello I played in Auschwitz. I threw her out. I said, 'Don't come and interview me if you haven't got the slightest idea of my story.' We were sent from Auschwitz to Belsen [near Hanover in northern Germany]. Do you think you say, 'Excuse me, I've got to pack my cello up'?"

She was taken on a train with 3,000 others to Belsen. "It was a very small camp when we arrived," she says, "nothing like it was later. There were no barracks for us, so we were put in tents; then the tents collapsed in the rain. Suddenly there were barracks - God knows what happened to the people there before us. People ask me which was worse, Auschwitz or Belsen? But they were completely different. Auschwitz was a well-organised extermination camp with all the apparatus. In Belsen they didn't need the apparatus; you just perished anyway. There was no food, there were diseases, it was the end - and then the death marches arrived. There were no facilities, nothing. It was complete chaos. We were there for six months, with nothing to eat. Occasionally, somebody found a turnip. After the liberation, the allies found that there was food there. They just hadn't given it to us."

Renata, who could speak English, became an interpreter with the British army, and suggested her sister enlist as well. "She said to me, 'Why don't you become an interpreter too?' I said. 'I can't speak English.' She said, 'It doesn't matter.' So I became an interpreter and we were part of the British army." They contacted Marianne back in the UK, and in 1946 Anita and Renata moved to Britain. Anita had a successful musical career; Renata worked for the BBC, married and moved to France, where she made films and still lives; Marianne, who escaped the camps, died soon after the war in childbirth. "Such," says Lasker Wallfisch, "are the ironies of fate."

Eve, Rudi and Paul Oppenheimer: The Last Train From Belsen

Every Holocaust survivor has a different story. This is certainly true for the story of the three Oppenheimer children, Eve, Rudi and Paul, who were fortunate to survive for five years under the Nazis in Holland, and in the camps of Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen, and who finished up on ‘The Last Train from Belsen.’

Our parents, Hans and Rita Oppenheimer, lived in Belsen. We were a typical middle-class family of assimilated Jews, who rarely ventured into a synagogue. Paul and Rudi were born in Berlin in 1928 and 1931, respectively.

With the advent of Hitler and the Nazis, life became progressively more difficult for all Jewish people living in Germany. Many Jewish families wanted to leave Germany, but most other countries would not accept these refugees. Our father, Hans, worked at the Mendelssohn Bank in Berlin which had a branch office in Amsterdam in Holland. He had managed to obtain a transfer to the Amsterdam branch in 1936 and the family went to live in Holland, near the seaside in Heemstede. These were happy days for the Oppenheimer children, but they only lasted for four years.

In May 1940, the Germans invaded Holland and within five days, the Dutch army surrendered. The Germans occupied the whole country, took over its government, and soon started to persecute the Jews who lived there. Anti-Jewish Laws were introduced in an insidious step-by-step manner to restrict the life of all Jewish people in Holland. We were not allowed into public places like parks, zoos, restaurants, hotels, museums, libraries and swimming pools. We had to attend Jewish schools. We had to live in Amsterdam. We had to wear the yellow star. We had a curfew. We had to hand in our bicycles. We were not allowed on the bus or tram.

Roman Halter

I was 12 years old in September 1939 when Hitler’s troops entered Poland. I was the seventh child in our family and the youngest. My family and relations lived in the north-western part of Poland, in a town called Chodecz (Godetz in German). The area where I lived was made an integral part of greater Germany in 1939 and the “clearing-out” – the murder – of the Jewish people began almost immediately. Before September 1939, Poles, Germans and 800 Jews lived in my town. Murder began as soon as the SS police took charge of the town, towards the end of September 1939.

First of all, the SS rounded up all the potential Jewish and Polish leaders in our town and shot them. And they did the same thing in the adjoining towns. Then they took all the able-bodied Jewish men and women to work, either building the Berlin-Pozen road and railway line, or on the construction of the first extermination camp in Chelmno (German Klumthof), built to murder the Jewish communities of north-western Poland.

For those of us who remained in Chodecz, our properties were taken away and we were relocated in hovels on the outskirts of the town. We were made to wear armbands with the Star of David on them and to walk in the gutter. By the following year, autumn 1940, of the 800 Jews who originally lived in our town, 360 were left; and we were all sent to the ghetto in Lodz.

When we arrived there, the Lodz ghetto was overcrowded and could only accept 120 of us. My grandfather, father, mother, half-sister and two of her children, and I were amongst the 120 taken in, but the remainder were taken away and shot. The Lodz ghetto was an unjust and unequal society. Those who ran it under Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, along with their friends, relations and acquaintances, managed to eat adequately; the rest starved. Those of us who were outsiders starved from the first day.

My grandfather, to whom I was very close, died two months later, in October 1940. He told me that when I survived – not if I survived but when – I must tell the world that the German Nazis were murdering all the Jewish people. As early as October 1940, he had understood this, and his words helped me to live because I believed what he said to me.

The Lodz ghetto set up factories to produce things needed by the German forces. I succeeded in getting a job in the metal factory. In addition to the starvation rations, those who worked received soup, a watery soup, but soup nevertheless. Even with the extra soup I looked like a skeleton, and so did my father, mother, half-sister and her two children. My father died of starvation in autumn 1941. My mother’s legs were swollen from hunger and she moved with great difficulty.

In Spring 1942, my mother, my half-sister, her two children and I were all selected to be taken to Chelmno to be murdered there. My sister could have saved herself, but when they took her two children, she chose to go with them. My mother begged me to escape and hide till the selection of our area of the ghetto was over. “Run in a zigzag,” she told me, “and don’t stop when they shoot or shout ‘Halt!’. I did as she asked and escaped that selection, but my mother, half-sister and her children all perished there.

Roman Halter's art exhibition at the Imperial War Museum

Students from FCHS were treated to an inspiring art exhibition at the IWM. Roman Halter's paintings of his memories of the Holocaust were a great inspiration to the boys in terms of their educational development and furthering their knowledge of the Holocaust.

Roman and the boys from FCHS at Roman's inspiring art exhibition at the IWM

Roman signs copies of his fascinating autobiography, "Roman's Story"

How to sponsor REMEMBER

Due to the continued success of Remember, further performances are in the pipeline. If you would like to sponsor the production, please email Remember's business manager, Lindsay Watling at:

lwatling@finchleycatholic.org.uk

All profits will go to Holocaust memorial charities and will be published on this website. Thank you for your continued support for REMEMBER.

Have a comment to make regarding REMEMBER?

Have you already seen REMEMBER? Would you like to comment on the production? We would welcome any discussion regarding the show and its content. Please email Remember's Artistic Director, Mark Sell at:

msell@finchleycatholic.org.uk

Want to buy a REMEMBER T- Shirt?

If you would like to buy a REMEMBER T-Shirt, they are now available from the Performing Arts Department. They are priced at £13 each, come in navy blue only and are designed with the Flower Boy's face on the front (see below), with the word 'REMEMBER' on the back.

Contact us with the required size and the quantity. Please email Mark Sell at:

msell@finchleycatholic.org.uk

or

Telephone: 020 8445 0105 ex 248

Memorable Quotations

Since Remember was first performed in the PA Centre back in March '07, we have received scores of letters and emails from members of the public congratulating us on the production. Below is a selection of their comments:

"My entire family was murdered by the Nazis and I have seen many, many productions about the Holocaust, but I have never seen one of this quality, I was in tears throughout! "

Lord Grevile Janner , speaking after the production was performed at the Jewish Free School

"My visit to the Finchley Catholic School last Monday was memorable. The entrance hall with the students/actors along the walls holding lit candles and greeting us with a white rose and the word REMEMBER made me feel very emotional and set the atmosphere for the evening. The acting was excellent and the direction very effective. l have great admiration for the students who portrayed these horrific events with such understanding and deep feeling."

Mala Tribich, Holocaust survivor

"I just wanted to say again to everybody involved in this venture how impressed I was with the performance on Wednesday (Arts Depot). The dedication by everybody shown to this sorry chapter in history was simply wonderful. The acting by the children was superb and I wish you all the very best of luck for the future."

Anita Lasker Wallfisch - Survivor of Auschwitz

"...this is a production that should be seen by as many people as possible."

Roman Halter - Survivor of Auschwitz

"...just how moving and well performed the play is."

Rudi Oppenheimer - Survivor of Belsen

"I feel I must write to compliment the staff and pupils of your school and St Michael's for their performance which defies any word of praise I can find. I found 'Remember' moving to the extreme with the cast's feelings coming from the depth of their being. To hear them sing 'Ani Maamin' brought me almost to tears. The portrayal of individual characters was just perfect and it would be invidious to even try to home in on any one actor/actress."

Bernd Koschland - Child on the Kindertransport

"I very much enjoyed the amazing production and felt that it was as good as a West End production."

Past Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Eva Greenspan

"I was privileged to be in the audience on Monday evening at the New
North London Synagogue and would like to congratulate your staff
and the performers for a very moving performance. It was wonderful to
see young people so involved and passionate about a subject,
especially one so close to my heart."

Louise Heilbron - on Fellowship programme at the Imperial War Museum

"I saw the production of 'Remember' for a second time last night and 1 was even more moved by it... two of my colleagues (members of theJewish community) were there last night and I have just spoken to them and they were simply astounded by it - the quality of the acting and depth and sincerity of feeling, and the fact that it was a group of young Catholic students put together such a powerful and poignant message. They both said I must be very proud to have a son in that school and that is very much the case. It was a remarkable production and testament to the whole ethos of the school."

Maureen Durack - Member of school community, has son at FCHS

Barnet and Potters Bar Times - Article

Auschwitz performance moves audience to tears

Pupils from a school in North Finchley have performed a play about the Holocaust at the site of some of its worst cruelty.

The cast of Remember, of Finchley Catholic High School, Woodside Lane, performed the play on May 25 inside a former Nazi administration block at the Auschwitz labour camp.

The audience included deputy director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, Krystyna Oleksy, the museum's head of educational programmes, Alicja Bialecka, pupils' parents, and children from a Polish school.

This was followed by performances at a theatre in Krakow and at a Jewish Prayer House in the city's Jewish quarter. The pupils returned to the UK last Thursday.

Remember was written by head of performing arts at the school, Mark Sell, drawing on real-life testimonies from Holocaust survivors. Preparing for the play, pupils learned songs in Hebrew and Yiddish, met Holocaust survivors and did their own historical research.

Mr Sell said: "The directors of Auschwitz had been reluctant for us to perform there because it is such hallowed ground. But afterwards, the deputy director praised the cast for being extraordinarily professional and the show for being significant in the fight for ensuring the Holocaust continues to be remembered. She and the director for Holocaust education were moved to tears throughout the performance - an incredible feat considering that they work there every day.

"The significance of being there didn't hit the pupils until after the performance. But then it strengthened their resolve. It put places to the names they talked about. They talk about being experimented on in Block 10, and then they are in Block 10. They talk about the torture that happened in Block 11 and here they are, standing in it. It was the best thing I've done in my career."

The cast also included six girls from St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, Nether Street, North Finchley.

Wednesday 6th June 2007

By Miriam CraigFinchley school

The Jewish Chronicle - Article

05/04/2007
Rachel Fletcher

Finchley School

A Holocaust play performed by Catholic schoolchildren is due to go to the Arts Depot and Poland after premiering at the school last month.

Remember, an original play by Mark Sell, is performed by the all-boys Finchley Catholic High School, with female roles played by students from its sister school St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School. The 30 pupils, aged 11 to 15, will pay £400 each to tour Poland and perform there.

They will also visit Auschwitz, and will give a performance there on May 25.

Mr Sell, a former actor and now head of performing arts at FCHS, said Remember was inspired by the famous Holocaust photograph of a young boy with his hands raised, being marched at gunpoint.

“I wanted the students to get under the skin of their characters — you don’t do that in history lessons,” he told the JC.

“Over 100 boys auditioned for 20 places.”

Remember’s cast includes the boy from the photograph, known as Flower Boy for the white rose he carries, a Holocaust survivor giving her testimony, Nazis at the Nuremberg trials and a Jewish policeman who rounded up Jews to prevent the Germans taking even more.

Music is provided by a live band dressed in prison pyjamas with yellow stars. The cast sings Hebrew songs, the Mourners’ Kaddish and recites Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man.

Daniele Boeri, 13, who plays Flower Boy, said: “Someone outside of school, who has no faith, told me the play couldn’t be as good as it would be if a Jewish school made it. He said a Jewish school would have stronger feelings.

“I think that’s completely wrong. Everyone is a human being and we don’t want to see anybody die.”

Jack Cronin, 15, who plays a Nazi guard, said he was “shocked” on discovering his role.

“In my part I have to laugh [at gas victims],” he said. “I found that difficult because it’s not funny, and I’m trying to make it believable.”

The actors were further aided in their research by a visit from Belsen survivor Rudi Oppenheimer.

Szymon Gavrielczyk, 14, who plays the Jewish policeman, said of his role: “It was hard to get into it. He shows his thoughts and why he became a policeman — to try to save other Jewish lives. He had to get Jews for the Germans for gassing, but he really did care for the Jewish people — he tried to let other Jewish people off. They would have taken more if he hadn’t.”

Mr Sell explained that Mr Oppenheimer had found the policeman’s inclusion controversial but believed it should be included.

Scarlett Neville, 15, who plays an elderly survivor giving testimony, explained: “I have two monologues. They were difficult to learn but once you have done it’s fine. But it is difficult because I’ve never suffered anything horrific in my life, and it’s hard to try to imagine something that bad.”

Alex Greene, 15, added: “We may be paying £400 to go to Poland but going to Auschwitz will be priceless. We will remember it when we are older.”

Remember is showing at the Arts Depot in Finchley on May 10. The students leave for Poland on May 23, where they will perform twice at the Groteska theatre in Krakow and once at a drama school, the erstwhile Salomon Daiches prayer house in Kazimierz in the Jewish quarter.

Hendon and Finchley Times - Article

Pupils from a Catholic school in Finchley will be performing a play about the Holocaust at Auschwitz next week.

The cast of Remember, from Finchley Catholic High School (FCHS), in Woodside Lane, North Finchley, will tour Poland and perform at a professional theatre, a Jewish prayer house in Krakow, as well as the former Nazi administration block at the Auschwitz labour camp.

The production, written by head of performing arts Mark Sell, using real-life testimonies from Holocaust survivors, was first performed at the school in March. The cast includes six girls from St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, Nether Street, North Finchley.

The performance at Auschwitz will be in front of an invited audience including the directors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, pupils' parents, and teachers and pupils from a Polish school. A play in English will be performed by Polish pupils for the Finchley cast.

Mr Sell said: "The cast is very apprehensive because no one's ever performed at Auschwitz before. It's hallowed ground really. I'm concerned about the emotional impact it will have on the children, but they have been doing this play for a while, so they are prepared. They've got to be very mature and we will have to have things in place to deal with any emotional fallout.

"But at the same time it's a phenomenal honour. The support from the Jewish community and the community in Finchley and elsewhere has been fantastic. What it's all about is remembering the Holocaust."

Barnet and Potters Bar Times - Article

An emotional performance

A Catholic boys’ school in Finchley has taken the unusual step of putting on a play about the Holocaust, before taking it on tour to Poland.

MIRIAM CRAIG went to meet some of the cast.

Never have teenage boys been so keen to admit they've been crying.

Out of the 14 boys aged between 11 and 15, seven put their hands up, clamouring to tell how they were moved to tears by the Holocaust play.

Cast member Daniele Boeri, 12, said: "Last night was the first time I cried in the whole show. I was looking at a picture of children in a concentration camp and I imagined one of them was my sister. I want to go to Auschwitz to see what those little children had to face when they were there."

Six weeks ago the cast, made up of 23 boys from Finchley Catholic High School (FCHS), in Woodside Lane, and six girls from St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, in Nether Street, started rehearsals for Remember, a play put together by FCHS head of performing arts Mark Sell, based on the real-life testimonies of Holocaust survivors. The play is made up of six interweaving narratives linked together by the story of one boy.

The idea for the play was suggested in December by Lena Santos, languages teacher at FCHS and production manager on the show.

She said: "We were in the staff room one morning and I said I would love us to do something about the Holocaust, but maybe it was too sombre for the boys. Mark literally flew from the chair. The next thing we knew he had been to the headmaster and we were doing it."

Des Yarde Martin, head of music and the play's musical director, added: "We realised just how little the boys knew about the Holocaust at an emotional level. They knew the facts, but it was very clinical."

During rehearsals the cast discussed the events of the Holocaust, did role-playing exercises and lined the hallway of the school's drama department with posters, quotations and stories from survivors - including the Holocaust experience of the mother of one of the school's teachers.

They also had a visit from Rudi Oppenheimer, a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

Ciaran Switonski, 15, who plays an ex-Nazi soldier in the play, said: "It was very moving because we heard his experiences first hand - it wasn't like a television documentary. He was sitting right next to us and we could ask him questions.

"We learnt that his parents both died in Bergen-Belsen and he, his sister and brother were orphaned. He was 12 at the time.

"He also showed us his original Jewish Star of David the yellow badge the Nazis made Jews wear. It's weird to think it was actually his star and he was made to wear it."

Cast members also had to do their own research into their characters. Ms Santos added: "The parents of one boy said they were quite sure their neighbours thought they had changed faith because their son is singing in Yiddish and Hebrew all around the house, watching The Pianist and Schindler's List, and doing his own research on the Holocaust."

One of the challenges of the show was performing songs in Yiddish and Hebrew, including Zog Nit Keyn Mol, also known as The Partisan Song, and Ani Ma'amin, which sets out the principles of the Jewish faith.

Other parts of the play are performed in choral verse, a kind of call-and-response chanting. Alex Greene, 15, who plays an ex-Nazi soldier, said: "We stand on the stage with everyone facing different directions, groups of people say different lines. The voices are coming from everywhere and it sounds really powerful."

Amid more excited explanations, the cast launch into some of the choral verse unprompted, their voices suddenly stronger and unified.

Daniele Boeri said: "Before we knew nothing other than the facts.

I really think this is the best lesson I've ever had. That's basically what putting on the play has been - a lesson."

Claudio Alfano, 12, an ensemble member, said: "At the beginning I didn't know a lot about the Holocaust. What really moved me was when Mr Sell showed us some pictures. There were hundreds of dead bodies lying in a ditch. That made me think about what the point of this was."

As the boys talk about the experiences of the Jews during the Second World War, Philip Donnelly, 15, a member of the band, rushes to correct any wrong impression: "We say near the end of the play that it wasn't just the Jews who were persecuted." They then reel off collectively: "Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals..."

The pupils taking part have clearly learnt a huge amount and are proud of their newfound understanding. The messages have hit home in a personal way; Jack Cronin, 15, aptly relates the barriers of race and religion to sporting preferences: "I think the show carries the message that all human beings are the same, no matter what religion they are."

After three performances at FCHS last week, the cast will be doing one night at the Artsdepot, North Finchley, on May 10, and will then be taking the play on tour for three performances in Poland later that month. While there, they also hope to perform at Auschwitz.

Mr Sell sums up the project: "I have never known anything to be so well supported. There was never one absence from any rehearsals. It has been the most positive atmosphere. Now that the performances in school are over, the kids keep coming and saying Sir, can we come in and do some rehearsals this week?' and I have to tell them No.'"

Remember is being performed at the Artsdepot, Nether Street, North Finchley, on May 10. Tickets priced £6 can be bought from Finchley Catholic School on 020 8445 0105, extension 248.

7:00pm Wednesday 21st March 2007

Holocaust Survivor visits FCHS

Mr. Oppenheimer and the cast of 'Remember'.

Conor reads extract from The Diary of Anne Frank.

An original star the Nazis forced the Jewish people to wear.

To remember the victims of the Holocaust, FCHS has planted scores of snowdrops in front of the Whitehouse. In a special ceremony attended by Holocaust survivor, Rudi Oppenheimer and many senior staff and pupils, including the cast of Remember, Conor O’ Sullivan read an extract from The Diary of Anne Frank, before Mr. Oppenheimer unveiled a commemorative plaque. It was a respectful event made extremely special for the boys and girls of the cast, as they had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Oppenheimer’s extraordinary account of surviving the horrors of Belsen. Pupils were moved by what they heard, which prompted them to ask many poignant and intelligent questions. I’m sure they will learn from Mr. Oppenheimer’s story and hopefully it will help ensure that they always REMEMBER.