Thursday was not just “muck-up day” at JFS.
Before it hit the headlines for flour-filled halls, the school was enjoying something of a time hop, taking its students back to 1945.
To celebrate VE day, 18 Second World War veterans from Ajex (the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women) visited to share their stories.
While they mixed with year nine in the school’s main hall, describing events like being evacuated during the Blitz and being locked up as prisoners of war, every other aspect of school life was devoted to giving pupils an authentic experience of life during the war years.
Among the changes in curricula, maths classes learnt code-breaking, food-tech focused on wartime recipes, languages discussed the French resistance, geography studied the planning and execution of D-Day landings, and sports treated recruits to military boot camp training.
History teachers roamed the halls dressed in traditional 1940s apparel, while old-time fanfare played in the background. Bomb sirens intermittently went off throughout the day.
“We often take our freedoms for granted,” history teacher Susie Fox, who organised the day’s events, told pupils. “We want you to value your freedom and the democracy these veterans fought for.
“So many British Jews signed up for the armed forces. It’s important you all know this so you can stem the ignorance that breeds racism.”
Roy Filer, 89, told a small group of pupils: “Being in the army as an officer taught me to be a man. I learnt how to treat my unit with respect and how to manage people, skills that I used in later life.”
He shocked pupils as he told them that he had been their age, 13, when he joined the national service.
Arnold Phelops, 84, described being a nine-year-old evacuee. “I didn’t want to go away from home,” he said. “When we got to Stevenage, they didn’t know what a Jew was. They thought we had horns and tails.”
For 14-year-old JFS pupil Samson Tausig, the opportunity to hear the veterans’ stories was “amazing”.
“It’s really hitting me,” he said. “I lost my grandfather at a young age and he never told me about his experiences. This is making me so proud of who I am.”
Libi Stein, 14, agreed. She said she was surprised there were “so many different stories to be heard. It opens our eyes and informs us, so that we can keep their stories alive”.
