This session takes teachers through a newly created lesson designed for KS3 students which opens the complex area of post Holocaust trauma. By taking the case study of Leon Greenman who, after surviving the Holocaust lived alone to the age of 97, suffered the continuing effects of what he had experienced. Teachers will get a rare insight into Leon’s overwhelming feeling ‘survivor guilt’, deep rooted and complex fears, the torture of repeated nightmares and how this played out in everyday life.  Teachers will also be guided on how to assist their students to grasp this and contemplate whether the Holocaust ever ended for those who witnessed it.

In addition, the session will illustrate how many survivors including Leon worked tirelessly to help others through education, peace reconciliation, community cohesion, fighting racism in all its forms and in working to preserve the memory of victims of genocide. The session and its accompanying ready-to-go lesson explore how human beings can, despite the suffering that has been endured, resist being consumed by hate but can emerge a force for good.