Mike Levy

In October, we organised a visit from Holocaust Educational Trust educator Mike Levy to visit Wymondham College. He ran several workshops on the Holocaust with Year 13 history classes, in addition to participating in an interview about the Holocaust. He gives talks and Q&As in addition to running sessions across the UK, in schools and organisations, about various 

The classes were on the dilemmas and decisions of the public during the Holocaust. We looked at the different roles of people during the Holocaust and the criteria needed to fit them: perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. The vast majority of the public were bystanders - the class debated whether this made them innocent, as they weren’t perpetrators, or guilty, as they didn’t actively oppose the atrocities and thus can be considered to have been complicit. As the Nazi regime dominated public life, many people were somehow connected to their actions, even if they didn’t actually commit any crimes. We also looked at the actions of various individuals who made great efforts to help victims of the Holocaust to escape persecution, such as Oskar Schindler. It was a very informative and moving day, which was helpful in our academic study of the Holocaust and our personal understanding of the ways in which the Holocaust was operationalised.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Levy for giving up his time to speak to us, as it was invaluable for our project and the A Level History students.