What does persecution mean?

What does it mean to be persecuted?

Can you think of any examples throughout history where people have been persecuted?

Last week in RE, Year 5 were thinking about all of the key questions above. Persecution means when someone faces hostility, punishment or ill-treatment, usually because of race, political or religious beliefs. The children learnt about Anne Frank. Anne Frank and her family were persecuted because they were Jewish during WWII. As a class we discussed the different things that happened to Jewish people as a result of Adolf Hitler being in power in Germany.

The children have presented their ideas and research below:

We discussed about why Otto Frank chose to publish Anne’s diary following her death. Here are some of the responses from the children:

“I think her father wanted to publish it so that everyone knows that she was only little girl when Hitler started to persecute the Jews.”

“To share what Anne thought about the war and what life was like for her.”

“I think he wanted people to know what Anne went through when she was small.”