As part of their Unit 1 inquiry, 13 students of VCE Modern History took part in a guided tour of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick on Thursday 5th March. The museum's collection of personal testimonies, artefacts and photographs offered students a vivid and deeply humanising window into one of history's most significant atrocities. During the excursion, students had the opportunity to deepen their historical knowledge of the Holocaust and develop a greater emotional understanding of its continued impact.

As the final generation able to do so, students also had the opportunity to meet a survivor in person and ask them questions. Hearing a firsthand account of survival brought the history to life in a way no textbook can replicate, and the weight of that privilege was not lost on our students. It is clear that this experience had a profound impact on them, and they used the occasion to its full potential, asking thoughtful questions of the survivor before reflecting on how they might carry this history forward as increasingly decisive agents of change in our society. We are grateful to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for making this experience possible.