Bridging Generations – Holocaust Memorial Day at MGS

Yesterday marked Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered by the Nazi regime.

The Manchester Grammar School was honoured to welcome Anne Super as part of its Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration. At the age of 88, Anne shared her powerful and deeply moving testimony with Year 9 pupils, offering a personal insight into the human cost of the Holocaust and the importance of remembrance.

Anne recalled being forced from her home with her family in 1941 and rounded up alongside other Jewish families. In a moment of unimaginable bravery, her parents made the devastating decision that would ultimately save her life: her mother pushed her through a hedge into the arms of a nearby milkwoman, who took hold of Anne and ran. It was the last time Anne ever saw her parents, later learning that they were taken to a concentration camp and murdered.

The visit was made particularly poignant by the fact that Anne’s grandson, Monty, is a Year 12 pupil at the school. Reflecting this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day theme of “Bridging Generations,” Monty interviewed his grandmother as part of the commemoration, discussing her life and experiences while also fielding thoughtful questions from Year 9 pupils. This exchange created a deeply personal intergenerational moment, highlighting the importance of passing survivor testimony from one generation to the next.

Anne spoke not only about survival, but about the values that have shaped her life since. She described her belief in being a “citizen of the world”, her determination in becoming an optician at a time when she was the only woman on her course, and her later success in running her own practice. She reflected on the inner strength that has guided her since surviving an escape from a line of people held at gunpoint, and urged pupils to have courage, ambition and purpose, encouraging them to “just go for it”.

Now a committed speaker and educator, Anne continues to share her story so that the voices of Holocaust survivors are not lost to history. Her visit served as a powerful reminder of the responsibility carried by future generations to remember, to challenge prejudice, and to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.

The Manchester Grammar School is profoundly grateful to Anne for her generosity, courage and compassion in sharing her story, and for helping to ensure that this vital history lives on.