19 June 2019
This morning, Kirkham Grammar School were privileged to be visited by Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines MBE, who was one of the 669 predominantly Jewish children evacuated from Prague on one of eight Kindertransport trains. These were organised by Sir Nicholas Winton MBE. She captivated our Sixth Form and Third and Fourth Year pupils for over an hour, speaking through her testimony of her pre-war life and how lucky she felt to be alive and eventually reunite with her family. She spoke about the importance of being politically active and ensuring that injustices are fought. Only yesterday she had been protesting in Westminster about the treatment of orphaned refugee children in Greece. Lady Milena has been integral with the development of The Valediction Memorial at Prague’s main railway station. The students were shocked to hear that it has recently been vandalised in an anti-Semitic attack. This highlighted to all present the value of Holocaust education and the importance of not just standing by.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke.
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.'” - George Santayana.
The Kirkham Grammar School and the RPE Department would like to thank Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines for her time this morning. She was an inspiration and hopefully provided the pupils with a personal, human account of the Holocaust.
