10 NOVEMBER 2016
Supplement
Scott Saunders wants young Jewish people to join him on a life-changing trip to learn about their history and identity and carry this important connection into the future. He is very clear about why... Three kilometers. That’s all it is from Auschwitz to Birkenau, but it’s a stretch of road marked by railway tracks that Scott Saunders knows very well as he has walked the path countless times. By his own admission, he is an unlikely frequent visitor. A comfortable childhood in north-west London, an education at UCS school and more importantly without any familial ties to the Holocaust, just a very basic understanding of a horrific subject. “Enough to get by” is how Scott once would have described it, but that all changed when he got an invitation. Married and working as a successful international banker in Tokyo in 1992, invitations were plentiful, but it was one asking him to attend a memorial service honouring Japanese wartime hero Chiune Sugihara that opened Scott’s eyes to the realities of the Shoah and the story of a
courageous diplomat who got visas for thousands of Jews that made him want to know more. Lots more and he was soon reading everything he could about the Holocaust and growing more interested in his Judaism. He even became chairman of a synagogue when he moved to Hong Kong three years later, and in that role hosted an exhibition for Sydney’s Jewish Museum, where he met people who had survived the camps he had only ever seen as muted images in books. In 2005, Scott took 10 adults from Hong Kong to Poland to join the March of the Living. This is an annual event that brings thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish people from around the world to mark Yom Hashoah by remembering those who took their last steps on the desolate track between Auschwitz and Birkenau.
Scott’s recollections of his first March of the Living experience are visceral. The things he saw and the people he met, many of whom were survivors, made such an impact on him that he spread the word in Hong Kong and brought many other visitors in subsequent years. When the world financial market crashed in 2009, Scott decided it was time for a change. But this was no short-lived epiphany, and he came back to the UK to make his mark. “I was amazed when I had gone on March of the Living that there had only ever been a peripheral UK Jewish presence,” says Scott, who also gained a Masters in modern Jewish history. “I wanted to change that and while there have always been tours of remembrance to Poland, I wanted to offer the gold standard of trips in Holocaust education.” Continued on page 2