FOR the fifth year running, Thurrock young people will be visiting a former Nazi concentration camp and returning to help promote the community cohesion message.
Following four visits to Krakow in Poland and the nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, the council-led scheme has expanded and three Thurrock councillors along with 35 young people and support staff will be visiting Berlin next week.
Over four days they will be visiting Topography of Terror – the wartime headquarters of the Secret State Police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office – the German Resistance Memorial, the Bundestag, and the Berlin Wall memorial, as well as Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Cllr Lynn Worrall Thurrock Council’s portfolio holder for Transformation and Communities – who will be on the visit along with deputy mayor Cllr Tony Fish and Cllr Shane Hebb – said: “Over the years the project’ purpose has expanded and this time we want to concentrate on wider community issues.
“It is not simply about The Holocaust anymore, but what we can learn from a wider range of historical events.”
She said: “An action plan has been developed by schools, youth agencies and community partners with the aim of tackling community issues and promoting Thurrock.
“The challenge for Thurrock as a whole is that no single organisation has the manpower to tackle the wide range of social issues we are facing as a borough. However, through this ‘new way of working’ we hope to have an impact on Thurrock and build pride and respect across all our communities.”
Organisations and schools involved in this year’s trip are: the Youth Cabinet, TRUST, The Grays School Media Arts College, The Gateway Academy, Grays Convent School, Beacon Hill Academy, Treetops and South Essex College.
On Saturday (12 January) the Diversity Champions Project 2013 was launched at the Culver Centre, South Ockendon and included a workshop exploring how we can build a vibrant and tolerant Thurrock.
Some of the subjects covered in this year’s project will be youth oppression, political victimisation, religious persecution, resistance fighters and challenges to Human Rights with an emphasis on everyone’s individual responsibly to champion fairness for all.
A Holocaust memorial reflection will be included in an event at the Thameside Theatre on Monday, 28 January, between 2.30pm and 4.30pm.
I visited both camps a few years ago and thought a visit by school children should be a part of the school curriculum.
It is good that official trips are being made so that our youth are reminded of what happened and can make sure it never happens again.
I’m all for school children learning about history. But this is clearly a politically motivated trip and more to do with brainwashing children into Labour’s way of thinking and the acceptance of mass immigration as a policy. What have Nazi death camps got to do with local communities in Thurrock. I notice political victimisation is one of the themes of this. How apt.
What a jaundiced view!
My point was simply that our young people should be reminded of the atrocities that occurred at that time and ensure that as they grow up, perhaps some becoming influential members of our community, they must ensure it does not happen again.
GRAYSATH my comment was not aimes at you but more at the Labour Councillor andthe bewildering fact that representatives from TRUST have been invited along, presumably at the expense of the taxpayer again. Councillor Warroll clearly can’t see the irony behind what she espouses as a representative of the Labour party. Why call them diversity champions. Why not the Labour youth.
At least you can’t brand them as “Hitler Youth”.
This is somewhere I have always wanted to visit, I think it is great that young people are still being taught about the mass atrocities that occurred during WW2 and this serves as a reminder of the horrors that war can bring upon a nation, I hope that they are also being taught about the bombing of Dresden which is a big talking point of WW2 and if this was actually required which killed over 25000 people in one raid on a town which some say held no military basis for the mass destruction.
Please do not think I am trying to compare the two atrocities as I am not but simply pointing out that wholesale death and destruction was committed by both the Allies and Axis forces and we should look at these as a precautionary measure to ensure nothing of this scale happens again.
I too have been to Auschwitz. The scale to which murder, abuse, torture and evil acts of sadisum that took place is beyond my understanding. Whatever quarrel is raised in this article, whether it be political, cultural or social may I just point out LEST WE FORGET what happened to men, women, children, babies born in these places, not just Jews, but people from accross Europe and from communities and minorities that Hitler wanted eradicated. Although nearly 70years ago I believe if the younger generations can feel the gravity of this evil and stop this from happening again, then these trips must continue.
Does anyone in this country seriously believe there are similarities between Nazi death camps and the area they live in? Yes children should understand the horror that continues in some countries to this day. Is Coucillor Worrall seriously saying that there are maniacal dictators living in Thurrock poised to take over the world. They’ve invited along an organisation that is vehemently against allowing white British people into their organisation and will have nothing to do with them. They talk about youth oppression while drumming a clear poitical message into their heads. They talk about political victimisation while their party supports banning people from fostering children because of their political beliefs. As I said, the irony of it all is clearly beyond the understanding of Councillor Worral. Have the Labour party finished their investigation into TRUST’s spending yet. Have they got to the bottom of why virtually all their taxpayer money is spent on salaries and phone calls and trips abroad. Are they going to get the Labour youth to spread the word and encourage other children to join the movement.