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Lincoln students listen to Holocaust Survivor Steven Sedley - Photography by Woolf
Lincoln University students show respect at the Holocaust Centre in Wellington
Thank you for having shown us the truth,” wrote a Lincoln University student in the Visitors’ Book at the end of a busy
day in Wellington.
He was one of the fifteen told by Lincoln Vice Chancellor Roger Field to spend a day learning about the Holocaust at the
Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre.
The group also had an hour’s session with German ambassador His Excellency Thomas Meister and members of the embassy
staff, learning about modern Germany.
Two Auschwitz survivors told the students about their harrowing experiences, and they also heard from a third-generation
Jewish student who has visited the death camp more recently.
“The students were attentive and respectful of the speakers and the topic,” said Holocaust Centre director Inge Woolf.
“The whole unfortunate episode at the Lincoln student party comes out of ignorance, and underlines the need for more
knowledge and understanding about the Holocaust and World War 2 as part of our education system.
“Teaching about the Holocaust means teaching about tolerance and understanding of others who may be different from us.
It isn’t just about the fate of the Jews in Nazi Germany, it’s about the way conditions develop that lead to other
genocides like in Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur,” Mrs Woolf said.
“We want all New Zealand youth to learn how these things happened, and then take responsibility for making sure they
don’t happen again,” she added.
The students, who now have to write a 2000-word essay as part of the university’s disciplinary action, were accompanied
by Lincoln Students’ Association President Megan Harte.
ENDS