Skip to content

Children perform for King Charles at Holocaust event

PA More than 10 students in white tops are visible on the left and centre of the photo. King Charles is on the right and wearing a grey suit, and three other men are in the background.PA
King Charles spoke to students involved in the Echo Eternal project during a reception

Pupils from an academy trust were invited to Buckingham Palace to perform music for King Charles at an event commemorating the lives of people affected by the Holocaust.

Four academies in Birmingham are run by Core Education Trust, which created a project to educate children about the Holocaust, where millions of mostly Jewish people were murdered during World War Two.

The 10 pupils performed three songs for the King, which included one with lyrics partially written by children at Jewellery Quarter Academy (JQA) on Monday.

The project, Echo Eternal, also pays tribute to survivors through creative responses to their testimonies.

At the palace, children from JQA and the three other secondary schools - Arena Academy, City Academy and Rockwood Academy - performed alongside the National Youth Music Theatre.

Lyrics for We Are The Light, based on the theme of defiance against hatred and prejudice, were written by JQA students, with Nansen Primary School and James Brindley School also contributing words for the song.

Wiegala by Ilse Weber, who was killed with her son in the Holocaust, was one of the other songs performed for the King.

PA Seventeen students in total are visible on the photo - one group largely to the left of a screen in the middle and another group to the right. King Charles and two other men are on the right of the photo.PA
King Charles watched a musical performance by students involved in the project during the reception at Buckingham Palace

Echo Eternal was conceived by journalist Natasha Kaplinsky and developed in partnership with the four Core Education Trust Birmingham secondary schools in 2018.

The trust's group chief executive officer, Adrian Packer, said the Echo Eternal programme had engaged many hundreds of students from diverse communities about the Holocaust and other subsequent genocides.

He added the message of We Are The Light was "a powerful one and chimes with a sentiment we hear from all the survivors who inspire us - a wish for a more peaceful world and a better future".

Core Education Trust/PA Left to right, those photographed are Natasha Kaplinsky smiling in purple, child Yaashvi, Adrian Packer, Manfred Goldberg. The two men are wearing glasses, a dark jacket and a tie. King Charles is holding a tin ring.Core Education Trust/PA
Yaashvi, of the Arena Academy, next to Natasha Kaplinsky, looked on with Core Education Trust CEO Adrian Packer (left) and Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, as King Charles was presented with a tin ring that belonged to Holocaust survivor Zdenka Fantlova

The event was held in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

It took place ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, an occasion to remember the millions of mostly Jewish people murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as the victims of other genocides.

The date marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

More on this story
Related internet links