Letters of Love and Loss

Letters of Love and Loss

Report by Alice (L6) - 

On Friday 27 January, Lower 6 had a very touching talk from Francis Morton from Generation2Generation about his families story living as Jews in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust. This was in acknowledgement of Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday 27 January in memory of the 6 million Jews who were prosecuted and murdered along with other minority groups during the Holocaust.

Francis' talk consisted of photos of his family and a story which he pieced together through the little his mother had told him and a number of letters which he had found after her death. His mother had escaped from Prague in Czechoslovakia shortly before the Nazi invasion and had come to England on a domestic service visa to work for a family in Cambridge. This all happened despite the fact that she had just turned 18 and wished to go to university. Her mother and father were willing to send her away despite the fact that she would be leaving her family and friends because of the level of threat they felt was posed by the Nazi regime in neighbouring Germany. This really drove home to us how fearful people must have been as they watched these events happening so close to home.

From this point onwards Francis had worked out what happened to his extended family members who remained in Prague from letters written between them and his mother. He illustrated his story with quotes from the letters read by actors, which really helped us to appreciate the devastating human impact that spread through so many families at this time. Francis' mother, Renee, lost her mother, father, grandmother, sister and brother-in-law as a result of the Nazi’s treatment of Jews. The only surviving member of her family was her uncle.

Her entire family, although not all at the same time, were sent to Terezin, a village which the Nazis had decimated during their invasion. Previously there had been 5,000 residents but the Nazis were using it to house around 50,000 Jews who had been forcibly displaced. From here, Renee's mother sent her a letter which was essentially a farewell message, as they all new that this village was only a stopping point until they were sent to Auschwitz as part of the Nazi's 'Final Solution'. Renee's family were all killed at Auschwitz, with the exception of her grandmother who died at Terezin, and her sister who was rescued by Russian soldiers, but committed suicide after the trauma of her experience. Of 360,000 Jews living in Czechoslovakia, 264,000 were murdered by the Nazi's.

The purpose of Francis' talk was not only to humanise the horrifying statistics of deaths during the Holocaust, but also to draw attention to the treatment of refugee's both now and then. The UK put heavy restrictions on visa's which were granted to those trying to escape Nazi prosecution. One of these conditions was that the applicant had to have £50 in order to migrate to the UK, however this was impossible for almost all. Renee's sister tried to migrate to England but could not as she could not get the required money. These migrants, even once reaching England, were treated poorly and struggled to get jobs. Francis then brought our attention to the treatment of immigrants to the UK today who are dehumanised, even by politicians.

Francis finished his talk by reminding us of the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 - 'The Fragility of Freedom'. This was a very powerful talk which really helped us to understand the impact of the Holocaust on families across Europe, and also helped us to consider to treatment of refugees at that time, and today.