Holocaust survivor visits Rydal Penrhos
Rydal Penrhos School welcomed John Fieldsend on Wednesday 25 January 2012 as he recounted his evacuation of Germany in 1939.
Pupils of all ages filled the School’s Carnegie Room to hear the moving account of his survival as he was evacuated and travelled with the Kindertransport to England.
Born in 1931 in Czechoslovakia into a typical Jewish family, Mr Fieldsend was fostered by an English family on his arrival to Britain. He went on to become an electrical engineer before becoming an engineer officer in the Royal Air Force and later working in electronic research and development.
The lecture gave pupils the opportunity to hear firsthand experiences of how terrifying life was during that time and the hardships he encountered in his attempt to leave Germany.
Year 10 pupil, Gabriel McCluskey who attended the lecture said, “Mr Fieldsend gave a heartrending account of what it would have been like to be a child during the Holocaust. By the end of the lecture many of the girls and several of the boys were in tears.”
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