Ellie's Jerusalem Journey - highlights

Marian College English and History teacher Ellie Caradus recently travelled in a New Zealand delegation to Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem.

Ellie shares her highlights:

Yad Vashem

We spent two and a half weeks learning about a variety of topics pertaining to the Holocaust; the roots of anti-semitism, Jewish cultural life prior to the Holocaust, the ghettoisation of Germany and Poland, music and art in the ghettos and theological thought about God and the Holocaust. All of the lectures were given by experts from around the world. At Yad Vashem we met some extremely inspirational people who survived the Holocaust as children. Their stories were both harrowing and uplifting. They all managed to forge exceptional lives after the Holocaust. One of them said the ultimate revenge is having grandchildren. 

Oskar Schindler's Grave

We visited his grave in a Catholic cemetery in Jerusalem, with two people who survived the Holocaust due to his help. I placed a rock on the grave in remembrance of his bravery. 

The Western Wall

This was one of my favourite spots in Jerusalem; the Western Wall. I visited it many times. The Western Wall is the only part of the Second Temple remaining from the Roman invasion of Jerusalem. The Second Temple is the Jewish spiritual heartland. It's destruction is still traumatic for the Jewish people even several millennia after its occurrence. I loved watching the ultra-orthodox Jews who prayed there. It was a very special place.

Article updated: Wednesday 27 February 2019

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Yad Vashem - keeping the memory alive

As a teenager, stories of Holocaust survival and resistance made a lasting impression on Ellie Caradus.

She shares her passion on the subject every year, teaching the teenagers of today, how it became possible that six million people were murdered during World War II.

Next month, the Marian College English and History teacher will be travelling to Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, as part of a delegation of 31, mostly teachers and educators, from all over New Zealand.

The mostly funded scholarship, made possible by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, involves 17 days of lectures, seminars and educational visits including the Ghetto Fighters’ House in the Western Galilee, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Tel Aviv and Bethlehem.

Mrs Caradus describes the professional development opportunity as amazing.

“On-going education, learning and sharing testimony and stories about the Holocaust are still very important,” she says.

“Directly after the Holocaust happened, there was no investigation, or recording of individuals' stories. There appeared to be no need – because at the time it would have seemed so evident and obvious – it was in front of their eyes. However, the survivors are aging and their numbers are fewer, so it is still very important to record and share survivor stories and witness testimony, to assist in convictions and to keep the memory and record of what happened alive.”

Mrs Caradus is particularly interested in resistance units and movements, understanding teaching philosophies and teaching the Holocaust in a responsible way.

During the Advent liturgy at Marian College this Thursday, a stone will be blessed, which Mrs Caradus will place at the grave of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who protected more than 1000 Jewish employees from deportation to Nazi concentration camps.

Some of the New Zealand Catholic School Yad Vasheem scholarship recipients: Claire Begovic (St. Peter's College, Auckland), Ellie Caradus, (Marian College, Christchurch), Rick Sahar (trip leader, whose parents were Holocaust survivors), Stephen Kennedy (St. Thomas of Canterbury College), and Mikaela Hood (Villa Maria College, Canterbury).

Article added: Wednesday 12 December 2018