Remembering not to forget - reflections by the poet Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen, writer and broadcaster, professor and poet and former Children’s Laureate, is known to many of us as the author of famous poems such as ‘Bear Hunt’ and ‘Chocolate Cake’, but today he is continuing his work we’ve been doing in Cambridge schools, to share histories about his family’s experiences in the Holocaust.

 

Michael, may I ask you to say a few words about remembering not to forget?

 

MICHAEL – REMEMBERING NOT TO FORGET

Today we are remembering the Holocaust.  This was the terrible persecution and genocide that took place in the middle of the twentieth century. We remember this firstly because we want to pay our respects to the millions of people who were killed, and because we don’t want those living, breathing people to go unforgotten. 

 

We also remember them and the Holocaust as a whole because it is a warning. We let those terrible events speak to us that we must do all we can to stop ourselves and to stop powerful people from doing such things. 

 

I’ve composed a lyric which Helen asked me to write as a piece for primary schools to sing, to help youngsters imagine the enormity of a Genocide, by painting a picture, to be able to see one child refugee, imagine a persecuted minority living in fear of a knock at the door, a grandma who now has no home to return to:

 

‘A child wanders through the ruins, 

A family fears a knock at the door,

A grandma looks for her old home,

They know they did not start this war’

 

We asked the children, what ‘helping hand’ could we give to support a child, a family, a grandma, in this situation? 

 

Please may I introduce our song to you – performed by the KS2 primary choirs of St Matthews, Milton Road, The Spinney, Fawcett and Trumpington Meadows – with the musical composition by Bethany Kirby, - the song is called  ‘We Are Better When We Stand Together’