In My Pocket

Upstanders and Education

The mission of the WE ARE HERE! Foundation project is to promote Human Rights and Social Justice through the principle of choosing to be an Upstander. Our focus is on education,  language, literature, music, film, the arts, and other cultural forms.

The WE ARE HERE! Foundation is pleased to announce the following new education initiatives.

1. IN MY POCKET Project on the Kindertransport and displaced people, suitable for 9 to 11 year olds

Project Significance 

Today, there are millions of refugees and displaced people, many of whom are children. This project highlights their difficulties when leaving their country of origin and settling in a new country. They would experience language, identity and belonging issues, the changing of family roles and cultural differences. As an example, there are currently two million refugees from the Ukraine in Poland alone.

From the historical perspective of the In My Pocket project, its message is as relevant as ever before. This project originates from the important period of history when 10,000 children were forced to leave Germany and relocated to the United Kingdom. It is told from the perspective of a young person.

The book In My Pocket by Dorrith Sim tells how, as a seven-year-old Jewish girl, Dorrith had to flee Germany all alone. The separation from her parents was final. But while Dorrith’s story is sad, first and foremost, it is the story of her rescue and her coming to terms with her new life in a different country.

At the same time, it enables a new perspective on the current situation of refugees. It’s important to note there are over 100 different nationalities in Western Australia, and this project translates across all communities. It provides a clear link to what young people from diverse backgrounds could see and face about their ethnicities.

Points of Arrival - Dorrith Sim (Subtitled)
Video
Dorrith Sim was one of the thousands of Jewish children who arrived in the UK in 1939 on what became known as the Kindertransport. Travelling alone and speaking little English, she was taken in by an Edinburgh family. After the war, Dorrith chose to remain in Edinburgh. She wrote a book about her experiences and became an ambassador and spokesperson for her fellow refugees. Narrated by Noa Wilkes, film by Chris Leslie. For more information on this project, see jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk

WA MUSEUM In My Pocket

BOOK READING AND ARTS & CRAFTS WORKSHOP

Dr Bill Allen, Professor Lynne Cohen, Eli & Jill Rabinowitz

Eli Rabinowitz, CEO of WE ARE HERE! Foundation, combines his talents as filmmaker, storyteller, traveller and genealogist to manage 90 Jewishhgen.org KehilaLinks and 600+ posts on his other websites.  Eli focuses on education and cultural forms to promote Upstanders. These are driven by stories of Jewish Partisans, indigenous Australian William Cooper, and children’s author Dorrith Sim, which seek to inspire in young people the confidence to stand up in the face of prejudice and discrimination.