The Crocus Project

The Crocus Project is a programme in which the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland distributes flower bulbs to schools across the country.  On the 7 October, Form 4D planted a brown paper envelope full of bulbs outside the school, as a conclusion to our history module on Auschwitz, taught by Ms. HE. The bulbs will grow into flowers, and by late January, the front of our school will be dotted with yellow crocuses, just in time for Holocaust Memorial Month. The crocuses are in commemoration of the 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust or Shoah, at the hands of the Nazis. The yellow colour represents the star of David that Jewish people were forced to wear in concentration camps.

For the past six weeks, our history class has been learning about the Holocaust; the discrimination Jewish people faced, from ghettos, to concentration camps, to their eventual death at the hands of the Nazis. This information was disturbing at times, and our class was upset by some of the

documentaries we watched which had graphic images of the starvation, abuse and illness Jewish people were forced to endure.  Learning about this was very saddening, and its possible to see how people would want to forget about the Holocaust and man’s capacity for cruelty.

However, to quote Elie Wiesel, ‘’To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time’’. However horrifying, the Holocaust can educate us on the horrors of prejudice, and the danger of remaining silent in the face of adversity. When planting our bulbs in turn, our class had time to reflect on how the flowers will grow into yellow crocuses which will remind us of the Jewish children who were killed in the Holocaust, as well as the importance of tolerance, and the preservation of human dignity. ‘’For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.’’ 
By Grace Gageby