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Friday 26 June 2015

Another welcome return to HMP Gartree! Anne Frank Prison exhibition - June 2015

Zion Lion of A Wing, HMP Gartree, soap, Sculpture. Image: Courtesy of the Koestler Trust

Another welcome return to HMP Gartree after several years. HMP Gartree is a Category B prison in Harborough -Market.
  
The exhibition was situated in a large modern workshop – central to the prison with very good access for all the prisoners to visit the event.
 A group of 15 prisoners had volunteered to act as our guides for the exhibition and after a day of intensive training were ready to a steer the visitors through the exhibition and to explain the story of Anne Frank and why it still has relevance in today’s world.
One of the guides (as sometimes happens) had volunteered for this work having been a guide in recent years at another establishment in the UK.The exhibition had a great many visitors, and on the last day, was extremely well attended by prisoners, staff and some outside visitors.

Mrs Eva Clarke was our guest speaker at the closing event and was very well received by the audience. Eva told the story of how she was one of the few babies to be born in a concentration camp during the last days of WW2. A miraculous story of survival against all the odds.
The Governor Mrs Ali Barker was most gracious in thanking Eva for coming there to speak and to say how much she had been affected by her story. This was made even more poignant because Governor Barker is herself pregnant and soon to give birth.

Many thanks to everyone concerned. Lindsay Beadnall and Verity Smith (Diversity & Equality) and to Bill Newton Deputy Governor for making the event go so smoothly.


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