OKEHAMPTON College is soon to receive a very special visit, as the school opens its doors to holocaust survivor, Zigi Shipper.

The school will be offering the local community and students the rare opportunity to hear from a holocaust survivor, before having the chance to ask him questions.

Students from the local federation of schools, will take part in workshops based on tolerance and equality in the morning, before hearing a testimony from Zigi Shipper, as part of a visit organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).

Zigi was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in Lodz, Poland. In 1940, he and his grandparents were forced to move into the Lodz ghetto.

Zigi managed to remain in the ghetto until its liquidation in 1944, when he and the other survivors of the ghetto were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Nearing the end of the war, and with the Russians advancing, Zigi and the rest of his group were sent on a death march.

On arriving in the German naval town of Neustadt, there was a British air force attack, and during the chaos that followed Zigi realised that all of the Nazis had left. They were liberated on May 3rd, 1945.

Zigi finally arrived in the UK in 1947, where he married and had a family. He now lives in Hertfordshire and regularly shares his testimony in schools across the country.

Zigi’s testimony will be followed by a question and answer session to enable students to better understand the nature of the holocaust and to explore its lessons in more depth.

The visit is part of the HET’s extensive year round outreach programme, which is available to schools throughout the UK.

The HET also organises a trip for two students from each school to travel and visit a concentration camp.

Harriet Van Houben and Caleb Stevens, both year 13, were able to travel to Auschwitz in March of this year.

They said: ‘We went on March 24 as part of the lessons from the Auschwitz programme ran by the Holocaust Educational Trust. It was a day trip – arriving in Exeter airport at 4am and returning incredibly late!

‘It was weird when people asked us if we enjoyed the trip because we didn’t know what to say. We enjoyed it but it was very sad. The whole trip took us back to reality quite a lot, mostly because of the fact that everything had been left as it was and the figures of the numbers of the people that were in each room.

‘We thought that it would be beneficial for others to learn about it as we had already heard the talk – especially people who don’t understand what happened.’

A public talk, which can be attended by members of the local community will be held at Okehampton College on November 4; for tickets contact the college.