Survivor gives history lesson (From thisisoxfordshire)

Survivor gives history lesson

7:50pm Thursday 23rd October 2008

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Students at an Oxford school were transported back to the horrors of the Second World War today.

More than 100 teenagers at Cheney School in Headington attended a talk by Holocaust survivor Joanna Millan, organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).

Berlin-born Mrs Millan, from London, told pupils both her parents had died in Nazi concentration camps and that after the war she was adopted by a couple from London.

After the talk, sixth-form student Matthew Cox, 16, said: "Facts and figures in lessons aren't the same as hearing personal stories."

Friend Ellie Doyle, 16, added: "We were privileged to be able to talk to someone directly. It won't be long before there is no-one alive who survived the Holocaust.

"It was really useful for our coursework as well."

Mrs Millan, 66, a mother-of-three and grandmother- of-eight, said: "The children asked brilliant questions, really good questions. It seemed to go well."

She was only three when the war ended, but she had already lived a lifetime.

She said: "My father was killed in Auschwitz in 1943 and my mother died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt the following year. My maternal grandmother was also killed in Auschwitz.

"I was in Theresienstadt with my mum and when she died I remained there with five other orphans.

"Women from the kitchen took it in turns to give us food. We had nobody to care for us on a regular basis. We became a family unit."

Mrs Millan was one of 300 children brought to Britain from the Czech Republic in August 1945.

She spent two years living in hostels, learning English and "how to be a child" before moving to London to live with a childless couple.

She said: "I went to live with them in 1947 and was adopted later.

“I had to forget about the past. They wouldn't talk about the past at all. They always pretended I was their daughter."

David Gimson, head of history at Cheney, said: "It was a privilege for us to welcome Mrs Millan to our school. Her testimony was a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced."

Holocaust trust chief executive Karen Pollock added: "Joanna's story is one of tremendous courage during horrific circumstances.

"Each of us has a responsibility to ensure we take forward the lessons taught by those who survived."

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