Holocaust Study Visit: Pre-Visit Workshop!

Welcome back to my blog! Today I will be covering the Pre-Visit Workshop. Again, as always, I would like to thank Triangle Housing for the funding of this trip through there Housing for All, Good Relations budget and to Bann Maine West for facilitating the trip and for letting me document it through the blog.

On Thursday night we all gathered in the Maine Business Centre for our pre-visit workshop presented by the wonderful Dr Katy Radford MBE. We started off with some get to you know you activities. This was very helpful as while some of us were familiar with each other we didn't know everyone. So, we went around the circle saying our names and where we work or go to school. It was great to see so many people of all ages and from all over the Ballymena and Bann Maine West area.

Then to get our brains ticking Katy got us to do some more deeper personal thinking.

What would I take if I had to leave home in a hurry?

While it was a very simple questions it still took a lot of thought. I wrote: Photos, food, clothes and money. We didn't share what we wrote with the group, but Katy spoke about how for so many this is a real case scenario that many people must go through.

Next, we moved onto a pair’s activity. Katy had us sit back-to-back with someone we didn't know. I chose Scott. Then we were given cards that had symbols, and our task was to describe what we saw, and the other person had to listen and redraw it. For our first attempt I was describing, and Scott was drawing.

This was our first attempt:

As you can see there was a bit of miss communication! However, our second attempt where Scott was describing and I was drawing went much better!

What do you think?

Moving on Katy gave us a quiz sheet to help us learn more about Polish culture in Northern Ireland and when other communities arrived on our shores.

One of the most interesting things I learned was what the people of Northern Ireland did specifically to help Jews in 1939. In 1939 Northern Ireland provided refuge to Jewish children on the Kindertransport at the Millisle Refugee Farm in County Down. This was a cooperative agricultural project where they learned farming skills.

Then on a more personal note Katy talked about how a visit like this that covers such strong and difficult themes. That it was important that we take care of our emotional wellbeing and that if something difficult does arise take 5 and process what it is that has trigger us and to think. How will this make me feel in 6 months? Will you forget about it? Should you forget about? All very interesting and thought-provoking directions. This is something I am going to be very mindful of throughout the trip.

Then the most important bit we had refreshments. With scones and buns kindly provided by Delightful Bites.

After the break we were given a task called, 'Bann Maine Rescue and Recovery Team'. This was an interesting task where we had 8 different people stuck in a cave and we had to rank them in the order at which they would be saved and the only information we had was their name, age and a short sentence about their background. This was a very interesting activity and sparked a lot of conversations around the value of one’s life in a situation like this. Does having dependants make someone's life more valuable? Does being an ex-prisoner mean that the value of that person’s life worth less? Some very tricky and difficult conversations that many people in their day-to-day life must make with the lives of real people.

Then lastly to round out the night we went over the jam-packed itinerary for our 5-Day visit. It was amazing having Katy there as while she is not going over with us, she was able to give us tips of what to expect and an idea as what to wear or how much walking there is. All very valuable information.

In conclusion the evening went very well, and it was great to see and get to know so many of the people I will get to share this amazing experience with. Again, I would like to thank Dr Katy Radford MBE for coming along and sharing her incredible knowledge with us. To Bann Maine West Community Cluster for organising and facilitating the visit and lastly to Triangle Housing for the funding.

Lenny.