One of the activities that was set up for ambassadors and sixth form students at the 2023 Ambassador Conference was a pledge board for us to share some of our actions as part of the #10for10 campaign.
It was really interesting to read what other people are planning to do and there was a range of ideas, showing that Holocaust education is not limited to organising survivor talks or reading articles, although these are amazing things to do. It will be a good opportunity to get creative with ways of sharing survivor stories or putting together exhibitions to share information about the Holocaust.
At AmCon 2023, there was the opportunity to take polaroid photos and post these on a board. With one of the key aspects of HET’s #10for10 campaign to get more involved in the ambassador community, this was a great way to make a start on that. All of the ambassadors who attended AmCon have completed the first of this action list, and the community of young people committed to ensuring the Holocaust is never forgotten was as strong as ever. Such a creative response by the ambassadors with the polaroid wall to the community spirit fostered by AmCon highlights that the various ways we remember and commemorate the Holocaust do not have to be based around institutionalised memorials.
At one of the topical sessions “Sharing Stories Through Objects: A panel on the changing role of sources and artefacts in Holocaust curation” Marc Cave, Director of the National Holocaust Museum, highlighted that his museum prefers an immersive experience for its visitors rather than one based around viewing objects passively. Such an approach encourages active audience engagement not only in the interpretation of the Holocaust and its meaning, but in the ways audiences choose to commemorate and remember the victims of this genocide. The polaroid wall at AmCon felt like a step in furthering this approach. 80 years after the final trainload of Jewish prisoners were moved from Belzec extermination camp to Sobibor in June 1943, with the Nazis spending the remainder of the year attempting to destroy the Belzec site, young people came together (through the polaroid wall) at AmCon in 2023 to commemorate the Holocaust not by its horrors as such, but by their determination to show that despite attempts to destroy its evidence, it will never be forgotten.