Students and staff members of Oxford School with Peter and Leslie Gaspar.
Will you be a bystander or an upstander? That was the question posed to Oxford Area School students by holocaust survivor Peter Gaspar.
Gaspar gave a talk to the senior school along with visiting schools Rangiora New Life and Akaroa Area School, as part of a Project Hope tour, which brings holocaust survivors to New Zealand to share their experiences with Kiwi students.
Gaspar spoke of being born into Czechoslovakia in 1937, at the time of WWII and Nazi-occupied Europe.
His words stirred emotion in all those in the room, some visibly in tears as he spoke of living in a hole the size of a coffin in a paddock with his parents, and hiding for hours in a kitchen cupboard while Nazi soldiers drank with his smugglers at the dining table – not 2 metres from where he was hiding.
Read more: Holocaust survivor shares message of strength with students | Stuff.co.nz
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