Megan Lloyd, who is currently serving as a gap year tutor at Solihull – following six years as a pupil – visited Israel during the summer with 14 other Trust ambassadors in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.
On her return, she led a Holocaust workshop with the school’s upper sixth on the importance of remembering this dark episode in world history. She is also mentoring sixth-formers who are engaged in HET’s Lessons from Auschwitz project.
As a student, Megan took part in the project and, as a follow-up, organised a painting composed of the handprints of hundreds of pupils and staff in the shape of a Holocaust memorial flame, which now hangs in the foyer of Solihull School’s Bushell Hall.
Megan at Yad Vashem
The school is also custodian of an Anne Frank Tree, grown from a cutting of the tree that the young Jewish diarist could see from her hiding place in Amsterdam. The tree was the idea of pupil Holly Krober, who was so moved by her school trip to Auschwitz concentration camp that she was determined to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
During her visit to Israel, Megan was based at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, where she studied Jewish history and culture, the development of the Holocaust and Jewish life after the Second World War.
As well as visiting the city’s holy places, she also visited the ancient desert fortress of Masada and Israel’s capital, Tel Aviv, where she discussed the current political situation with the British Ambassador, David Quarrey.
Megan said: “My visit to Israel in the summer was extremely moving and educational, and I feel very proud to act as a regional ambassador for the HET.”
