Time for Reflection
The Presiding Officer
(Alison Johnstone)
Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for
reflection. Our time for reflection leaders today are Ben Kean
and Mia Williams, who are Holocaust Educational Trust
ambassadors.
Ben Kean (Holocaust
Educational Trust)
My name is Ben Kean, and this is Mia Williams. We are ambassadors
for the Holocaust Educational Trust. We took part in the trust’s
“Lessons from Auschwitz” project as pupils from Ross high school
in November 2023. As part of the project, we heard from a
Holocaust survivor, took part in a one-day trip to
Auschwitz-Birkenau and will be sharing what we learned with our
school community.
We wanted to take part in the project, because it would give us
the opportunity to remember individual stories of the Holocaust.
Learning about the Holocaust is vital in understanding how
genocide can happen. Walking in the same place that Jewish men,
women and children walked to their death allowed us to reflect on
what those people were forced to face. That is not an experience
that one can get from sitting in a classroom or reading a book.
We also heard the testimony of Holocaust survivor Janine Webber
BEM. Janine lost almost all her family in the Holocaust. She
explained how, after escaping the ghetto, she and her younger
brother were hidden by a farming family but that, after a few
months, they were betrayed by the family’s daughter. Janine
escaped; her brother did not. Hearing survivor stories such as
Janine’s helps young people like us really comprehend the
complexity of the Holocaust.
Mia Williams (Holocaust
Educational Trust)
After this experience, we both know that it is incredibly
important to share the stories of survivors and the people who
tragically lost their lives. In our next steps project, we have
chosen to work with younger students and will present a lesson
that will make them focus more on stories of Jewish families and
who they were before the Holocaust.
This year’s theme for Holocaust memorial day is “The Fragility of
Freedom”. That is important as we still see antisemitism
and extremism today, including here in the United Kingdom,
especially following the massacre that was perpetrated by Hamas
on 7 October 2023.
We are proud to continue the voices of the victims and will
strive to do so for many years to come. We will ensure that
people can still learn and remember the people who were so
immensely brave in a time of terror.
We hope that, today, the Parliament will join us in remembering
the survivors and victims of the Holocaust. I thank the Scottish
Parliament for inviting us to share our reflections today.
[Applause.]
