Holocaust survivor's son shares story with students

High school students have heard from the son of a Holocaust survivor at the launch of an annual event where young people create projects tackling prejudice.

Seven schools from across Suffolk are taking part in the Dora Love Prize, which was launched in Ipswich with a day of workshops hosted by the University of Suffolk.

They listened to a presentation by Chris Shaw, from Diss, whose mother Isobel Lowy survived concentration camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Belsen. She died in 1984.

He said: "I really do hope it encourages them to question the world around them and to question injustice when they see it."

His mother's message was: "It must be wrong to barricade yourself behind bitterness to bury yourself in hatred... In that way the world will never be a happy place."

This is the 14th year the competition has run, with more than 20 schools in Suffolk and Essex, with groups from Bournemouth and Canada, also taking part.

Founder Prof Rainer Schulze said: "The last 12 months have been incredible in a sense that we would have never believed that what happened actually would happen... I think it will be getting worse before it will get better.

"But working with the students gives you a little bit of optimism.

"They seem to be genuinely committed to working for a future that is including everyone and not excluding anyone because of their identity."

Following the launch event, students will work to devise their own projects on themes of diversity, inclusion and tolerance.

Alice, 13, from Northgate High School, told BBC Radio Suffolk: "I chose rights for girls in Iran because my mum was from Iran and some of my family are still there.

"They're struggling, so I think it'd be good if they had some more rights and then they can live a more peaceful, nice life."

The projects will be presented to a panel of judges at events in Suffolk and Essex in June.

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