2010 REMEMBRANCE DAY ASSEMBLY SCRIPT OUTLINE
Choir “Prayer for the Children”
5 Soldiers: Statistics
Alex
620,000 Canadians fought in World War I. 173,000 were wounded, and 67,000 were killed.
Janay
In World War II, 1.1 million Canadians fought. 55,000 were wounded. 42,042 died.
Jenna
In Korea, Canada’s forgotten war, there were 1,558 casualties. 516 were dead.
Kaitlyn
More than 125,000 Canadians have served in some 50 United Nations peacekeeping missions, and there have been 116 deaths.
Nicky
9 Canadian soldiers were lost in 1974 when their plane was shot down over Syria. It was the largest loss of life in a single peacekeeping event in
Canadian history.
Ashley
Since 2002, Canada has lost men and women in Afghanistan, including Master Corporal Erin Doyle of Kamloops. He was killed in an insurgent attack on
August 11, 2008.
WWI: “Dulce et Decorum Est”
V/O Nathan, Zach, Cortnal, Matt, Brenden, Nigel, Jordan, Chris
WWI: Christmas Truce
V/O Nicky
WWII: Split Stage – Enlisting/Land Mine
V/O Kevin
Dear Mom and Dad:
Things are better than I expected. My hammock is comfortable, and even though it’s not your cooking, the food rations are pretty good. Please stop worrying…
Dear Allison:
Thank you for all the letters, but please don’t be scared for me. The socks you sent are keeping my feet dry and warm.
WWII: The Holocaust
V/O (Ashley)
Between 1939 and 1945, during the Holocaust of World War II, the Nazis tried to systematically, destroy a race of people with what they termed the “final solution.”
THE IDENTIFICATION
SS Soldiers (Kevin et al) move from area to area (R to L)
DR Doctor (Matt) They came for me in the middle of my last appointment.
Patient (Sam) Parent (Kaitlyn)
UR Teacher (Sarah) I was preparing my lesson when he arrived. Before I knew what was happening, I was taken to the centre.
UL Shop Owner (Mark) Wife (Ashley) Customer (Nicky) I knew it wouldn’t be long before they came for them.
DL Mother (Sadie) I thought we had gotten past them until I heard him say,
SS Soldier (Kevin) You.
REGISTERING
V/O (Sadie) We were taken to the big lines of people. We had to give the names of everyone in our family.
V/O names as we see the lines of people
IN THE GHETTO
V/O (Janay) We were taken to the ghetto to live. Thousands of us in a city square. The living conditions were miserable.
UL Soup Line
(Dylan and Aaron)
A: There was never enough to eat in the ghettos. The soup was thin and cold.
DR Mother/Child
(Kadance/Maddy)
K: It was the first time in her life that I felt I couldn’t protect her.
DL Rabbi (Nigel)
N: miming prayer
Listeners (Gabby et al)
G: Those words were my only comfort.
DC Dead Bodies
Speaker (Bailey)
B: Death was so common that we grew numb to it.
LIQUIDATION OF GHETTO
Monologue pt. 1 (Leah) All the men, women and children of the ghetto had been herded into a square. Word had gotten around that we were being moved. My greatest fear was that our family would be separated. An SS man approached me, boots clicking against the cobblestones. He looked me up and down, then asked my age. “Sixteen,” I said. He directed me to the left, where my two brothers already stood. My mother was motioned to the right with the other sick and elderly people. It was the last I ever saw of her.
V/O (Nicky) We were assembled in a field. After about 4 hours the SS finally came in a shiny black car with their shiny black boots. They checked lists. We were all there. Why did we all walk meek like sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back, run, hide? Because we did not think that human beings were able to commit the crimes that were being committed.
TRAIN CAR
V/O (Sarah) They moved us from the ghettos to the concentration camps by train. We were packed into cattle cars where there was little room to sit – no food, no water. The trip lasted for days.
Both classes crammed into a small rectangle with some people on ground.
Scene pt. 1 (Dylan, Aaron, Maddie)
AT THE CAMP
Sophie’s Choice (Victoria, Matt)
Monologue pt. 2 (Leah)My brothers and I were transported in a cattle car, and we arrived at the concentration camp one night weeks later and were led into a crowded barrack. We were issued uniforms and identification numbers. One morning I thought I heard my mother’s voice. She said, “I am going to send you an angel.” Then I woke up. Just a dream. A beautiful dream. But in this place there could be no angels. There was only work. And hunger. And fear. A couple of days later, I was walking around the camp, around the barracks, near the barbed wire fence where the guards could not easily see. On the other side of the fence I saw a little girl, half hidden behind a birch tree. I said to her, “do you have something to eat?” She stepped forward. I was thin and gaunt, with rags wrapped around my feet, but the girl looked unafraid. In her eyes, I saw life. She pulled an apple from her coat and threw it over the fence. She said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Every day she was there, with something for me to eat. We didn’t dare speak or linger. To be caught would mean death for us both. This girl on the other side of the fence gave me something even more nourishing than bread or an apple. She gave me hope. My mother had promised to send me an angel, and the angel had come.
Death March
V/O (Faryn) The SS forced us on death marches. The weak, the ill, and the elderly died as they walked. And were left there. If you fell behind, or stepped out of line, you were shot. Everyone walking in single file
Scene pt 2 (Dylan/Aaron/SS)
Mass Grave
V/O (Jenna) Forced labour was commonplace. The prisoners were made to dig mass graves. They were often the first to fill them.
Three lines brought C, and each falls on the other when fired upon.
Showers
V/O (Cody) In the beginning, the people were grateful for the news that they would be allowed to shower. But instead of water, the shivering, huddling masses were subjected to a slow and agonizing death from the gas, Zyklon B.
Tableau of bodies on step unit.
V/O (Alex) The bodies were not lying here and there throughout the room, but piled in a mass to the ceiling. The reason for this was that the gas first inundated the lower layers of air then slowly rose. This forced the victims to trample one another in a frantic effort to escape the gas. The bodies of the women, the children, and the aged were at the bottom of the pile. At the top were the strongest. When the gas stopped pouring, and the guns fell silent, more than 6 million people lay dead. One fourth of these were children.
LIBERATION
(Nevada) All of a sudden I saw a strange car coming down the hill. Two men jumped out, came running toward us, and one came toward where I stood. He was wearing battle gear. I was a little afraid to tell him, but I said to him, “we are Jewish.” He didn’t answer me for quite a while, then his own voice sort of betrayed his emotion and he said, “So am I.” And then he asked an incredible question. He said, “May I see the other ladies?” You know how we had been treated for six years. I weighed 68 pounds, my hair was matted. And you can imagine – I hadn’t had a bath in years. And this man asked for “the other ladies.” I told him most of the girls were inside, you know. They were too ill to walk, and he said, “Won’t you come with me?” He held the door open for me and let me precede him, and in that gesture, restored me to humanity. And that young allied soldier of the day is my husband.
(Cody) Most of the things we saw when we liberated the camp were so horrible that they’ve been blocked mentally, I guess from self-preservation or something. I don’t remember the details very much, but one scene I remember vividly. When we were approaching, we saw a trainload of prisoners. Turned out they were not prisoners. It was a trainload of bodies. Thousands of bodies, I presume to be… to go through the furnaces, the ovens of Dachau.
(Nathan) One moment I will never forget was in the camp. I saw these living walking skeletons shuffling along toward each other. They got within a few yards of each other, stopped, stared at each other, and then they tried to run, and embraced. They were either related or very close friends, and until that moment neither knew the other was still alive.
Scene conclusion (Dylan, Aaron)
Korea: Canada’s Forgotten War
Monologue (Max) I was captured in Korea during the war, and was brought to a camp that the people called, “Pak’s Palace.” I soon discovered that it was named so after the dreaded “interrogator,” Col. Pak. “Interrogator,” the guards called him, but the captives had another name for him: torturer. Nearly all of us were subjected to his unforgiving hands. Most times he didn’t even ask us any questions. The conditions were barely livable; little food and water, no medical care of any kind, vermin-infested living quarters, and prisoners rife with disease and infection. The experience was a living hell – a hell that I never managed to fully escape.
Peacekeeping: Child Soldiers
V/O (Maddy, Naomi,Chris, Aaron, Kadance, Emily, Jordan, Meghan, Leah, Dylan, Nevada)
Peacekeeping: “I Am…Peacekeeper”
Afghanistan: Video Game
War Wounds
V/O (Will) Dear Mom and Dad: I’m writing to you with a special request. A very good friend of mine has suffered a terrible injury which has cost him his legs. He’s confined to a wheel chair, and once he’s discharged from the military hospital, he will need extensive rehabilitation and a place to live. I realize it would be a significant burden, but I’m hoping you will welcome him into our home and assist him in his recovery…
V/O (Emily) Dear Son: How sad we were to hear of your friend’s injury and his circumstances. We have discussed your request at length, and we’re very sorry, but we feel we have no choice but to say no. As you know, our house was not built to accommodate a person in a wheelchair, and even more importantly, the war has forced us to make tremendous sacrifices already, and all we want is for you to come home and for our lives to return to normal…
The Aftermath Monologues
Stephanie
There were so many of them. So much blood. I was a nurse in WWI. The soldiers came in on stretchers looking more like piles of mud than men. I had to leave men to die if they couldn’t be saved. I’d seen so much death, I could even determine who would live and who would die just by their screams. The only thing that kept me going, even today, is knowing that I’m the reason for the breath in the lungs of many men.
Sarah
My grandfather shot down nine enemy planes when he was in the war. He doesn’t like to talk about it. He says, most nights, when he closes his eyes, he’s right back in his plane, back in the death infested skies. He may be home, but he’ll never escape the war.
Kaitlyn
They took me in at their own risk, and now they’re dead. There was a banging on the door. I sat there – hiding – petrified. The door burst open, and they found me. Before they took me away, I saw the fate of the family who tried to help me. They protected me, and they paid the ultimate price.
Zach
I left for the war when I was young. I saw everyone die around me. Friends from school – old friends. And now the war has followed me home. The sound of a car back-firing; a book hitting the floor; even a pin dropped in a quiet room. I’m right back in the war.
Josh
After a while, you just emotionally shut down. Nothing shocks you anymore. You just…you just kind of live with it. I saw some terrible things in the Korean war. I saw POWs partaking in the march of death. I saw severed limbs and body parts just about everywhere I walked. It had no effect on me. I was able to completely ignore it. It wasn’t until a year or so after the war that it really started to sink in, and I started to realize what it was I had experienced and done.
Sam
It hurt to see all the violence and we couldn’t do a thing. We watched as the innocent where slaughtered. We were given guns that we couldn’t use. It was terrible. Man is the true beast if he can do these things to another.
V/O (Alyssa) as Meghan watches the news
Today, Canada has suffered another loss in Afghanistan. An improvised explosive device was detonated as the Canadian convoy passed. The blast was followed by a wave of insurgent gunfire. This death brings the total number of casualties to…
V/O (Jordan) as
Meghan hits play on the answering machine
Hi. It’s me. I can’t believe I missed you. I guess I got the time difference wrong. Anyways – it won’t be long now. My tour is up in less than two weeks, and then I’ll be home. I miss you. I miss our girls. Love you. Bye.
Max
Some people ask me about you dad. I tell them you died in the war before I was born. They say I must be very proud, and they ask me if I miss you. (pause) It’s hard to miss someone you never knew.
“Imagine”: Kadance and Naomi
“Last Post” and “Reveille”
Choir “Prayer for the Children”
5 Soldiers: Statistics
Alex
620,000 Canadians fought in World War I. 173,000 were wounded, and 67,000 were killed.
Janay
In World War II, 1.1 million Canadians fought. 55,000 were wounded. 42,042 died.
Jenna
In Korea, Canada’s forgotten war, there were 1,558 casualties. 516 were dead.
Kaitlyn
More than 125,000 Canadians have served in some 50 United Nations peacekeeping missions, and there have been 116 deaths.
Nicky
9 Canadian soldiers were lost in 1974 when their plane was shot down over Syria. It was the largest loss of life in a single peacekeeping event in
Canadian history.
Ashley
Since 2002, Canada has lost men and women in Afghanistan, including Master Corporal Erin Doyle of Kamloops. He was killed in an insurgent attack on
August 11, 2008.
WWI: “Dulce et Decorum Est”
V/O Nathan, Zach, Cortnal, Matt, Brenden, Nigel, Jordan, Chris
WWI: Christmas Truce
V/O Nicky
WWII: Split Stage – Enlisting/Land Mine
V/O Kevin
Dear Mom and Dad:
Things are better than I expected. My hammock is comfortable, and even though it’s not your cooking, the food rations are pretty good. Please stop worrying…
Dear Allison:
Thank you for all the letters, but please don’t be scared for me. The socks you sent are keeping my feet dry and warm.
WWII: The Holocaust
V/O (Ashley)
Between 1939 and 1945, during the Holocaust of World War II, the Nazis tried to systematically, destroy a race of people with what they termed the “final solution.”
THE IDENTIFICATION
SS Soldiers (Kevin et al) move from area to area (R to L)
DR Doctor (Matt) They came for me in the middle of my last appointment.
Patient (Sam) Parent (Kaitlyn)
UR Teacher (Sarah) I was preparing my lesson when he arrived. Before I knew what was happening, I was taken to the centre.
UL Shop Owner (Mark) Wife (Ashley) Customer (Nicky) I knew it wouldn’t be long before they came for them.
DL Mother (Sadie) I thought we had gotten past them until I heard him say,
SS Soldier (Kevin) You.
REGISTERING
V/O (Sadie) We were taken to the big lines of people. We had to give the names of everyone in our family.
V/O names as we see the lines of people
IN THE GHETTO
V/O (Janay) We were taken to the ghetto to live. Thousands of us in a city square. The living conditions were miserable.
UL Soup Line
(Dylan and Aaron)
A: There was never enough to eat in the ghettos. The soup was thin and cold.
DR Mother/Child
(Kadance/Maddy)
K: It was the first time in her life that I felt I couldn’t protect her.
DL Rabbi (Nigel)
N: miming prayer
Listeners (Gabby et al)
G: Those words were my only comfort.
DC Dead Bodies
Speaker (Bailey)
B: Death was so common that we grew numb to it.
LIQUIDATION OF GHETTO
Monologue pt. 1 (Leah) All the men, women and children of the ghetto had been herded into a square. Word had gotten around that we were being moved. My greatest fear was that our family would be separated. An SS man approached me, boots clicking against the cobblestones. He looked me up and down, then asked my age. “Sixteen,” I said. He directed me to the left, where my two brothers already stood. My mother was motioned to the right with the other sick and elderly people. It was the last I ever saw of her.
V/O (Nicky) We were assembled in a field. After about 4 hours the SS finally came in a shiny black car with their shiny black boots. They checked lists. We were all there. Why did we all walk meek like sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back, run, hide? Because we did not think that human beings were able to commit the crimes that were being committed.
TRAIN CAR
V/O (Sarah) They moved us from the ghettos to the concentration camps by train. We were packed into cattle cars where there was little room to sit – no food, no water. The trip lasted for days.
Both classes crammed into a small rectangle with some people on ground.
Scene pt. 1 (Dylan, Aaron, Maddie)
AT THE CAMP
Sophie’s Choice (Victoria, Matt)
Monologue pt. 2 (Leah)My brothers and I were transported in a cattle car, and we arrived at the concentration camp one night weeks later and were led into a crowded barrack. We were issued uniforms and identification numbers. One morning I thought I heard my mother’s voice. She said, “I am going to send you an angel.” Then I woke up. Just a dream. A beautiful dream. But in this place there could be no angels. There was only work. And hunger. And fear. A couple of days later, I was walking around the camp, around the barracks, near the barbed wire fence where the guards could not easily see. On the other side of the fence I saw a little girl, half hidden behind a birch tree. I said to her, “do you have something to eat?” She stepped forward. I was thin and gaunt, with rags wrapped around my feet, but the girl looked unafraid. In her eyes, I saw life. She pulled an apple from her coat and threw it over the fence. She said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Every day she was there, with something for me to eat. We didn’t dare speak or linger. To be caught would mean death for us both. This girl on the other side of the fence gave me something even more nourishing than bread or an apple. She gave me hope. My mother had promised to send me an angel, and the angel had come.
Death March
V/O (Faryn) The SS forced us on death marches. The weak, the ill, and the elderly died as they walked. And were left there. If you fell behind, or stepped out of line, you were shot. Everyone walking in single file
Scene pt 2 (Dylan/Aaron/SS)
Mass Grave
V/O (Jenna) Forced labour was commonplace. The prisoners were made to dig mass graves. They were often the first to fill them.
Three lines brought C, and each falls on the other when fired upon.
Showers
V/O (Cody) In the beginning, the people were grateful for the news that they would be allowed to shower. But instead of water, the shivering, huddling masses were subjected to a slow and agonizing death from the gas, Zyklon B.
Tableau of bodies on step unit.
V/O (Alex) The bodies were not lying here and there throughout the room, but piled in a mass to the ceiling. The reason for this was that the gas first inundated the lower layers of air then slowly rose. This forced the victims to trample one another in a frantic effort to escape the gas. The bodies of the women, the children, and the aged were at the bottom of the pile. At the top were the strongest. When the gas stopped pouring, and the guns fell silent, more than 6 million people lay dead. One fourth of these were children.
LIBERATION
(Nevada) All of a sudden I saw a strange car coming down the hill. Two men jumped out, came running toward us, and one came toward where I stood. He was wearing battle gear. I was a little afraid to tell him, but I said to him, “we are Jewish.” He didn’t answer me for quite a while, then his own voice sort of betrayed his emotion and he said, “So am I.” And then he asked an incredible question. He said, “May I see the other ladies?” You know how we had been treated for six years. I weighed 68 pounds, my hair was matted. And you can imagine – I hadn’t had a bath in years. And this man asked for “the other ladies.” I told him most of the girls were inside, you know. They were too ill to walk, and he said, “Won’t you come with me?” He held the door open for me and let me precede him, and in that gesture, restored me to humanity. And that young allied soldier of the day is my husband.
(Cody) Most of the things we saw when we liberated the camp were so horrible that they’ve been blocked mentally, I guess from self-preservation or something. I don’t remember the details very much, but one scene I remember vividly. When we were approaching, we saw a trainload of prisoners. Turned out they were not prisoners. It was a trainload of bodies. Thousands of bodies, I presume to be… to go through the furnaces, the ovens of Dachau.
(Nathan) One moment I will never forget was in the camp. I saw these living walking skeletons shuffling along toward each other. They got within a few yards of each other, stopped, stared at each other, and then they tried to run, and embraced. They were either related or very close friends, and until that moment neither knew the other was still alive.
Scene conclusion (Dylan, Aaron)
Korea: Canada’s Forgotten War
Monologue (Max) I was captured in Korea during the war, and was brought to a camp that the people called, “Pak’s Palace.” I soon discovered that it was named so after the dreaded “interrogator,” Col. Pak. “Interrogator,” the guards called him, but the captives had another name for him: torturer. Nearly all of us were subjected to his unforgiving hands. Most times he didn’t even ask us any questions. The conditions were barely livable; little food and water, no medical care of any kind, vermin-infested living quarters, and prisoners rife with disease and infection. The experience was a living hell – a hell that I never managed to fully escape.
Peacekeeping: Child Soldiers
V/O (Maddy, Naomi,Chris, Aaron, Kadance, Emily, Jordan, Meghan, Leah, Dylan, Nevada)
Peacekeeping: “I Am…Peacekeeper”
Afghanistan: Video Game
War Wounds
V/O (Will) Dear Mom and Dad: I’m writing to you with a special request. A very good friend of mine has suffered a terrible injury which has cost him his legs. He’s confined to a wheel chair, and once he’s discharged from the military hospital, he will need extensive rehabilitation and a place to live. I realize it would be a significant burden, but I’m hoping you will welcome him into our home and assist him in his recovery…
V/O (Emily) Dear Son: How sad we were to hear of your friend’s injury and his circumstances. We have discussed your request at length, and we’re very sorry, but we feel we have no choice but to say no. As you know, our house was not built to accommodate a person in a wheelchair, and even more importantly, the war has forced us to make tremendous sacrifices already, and all we want is for you to come home and for our lives to return to normal…
The Aftermath Monologues
Stephanie
There were so many of them. So much blood. I was a nurse in WWI. The soldiers came in on stretchers looking more like piles of mud than men. I had to leave men to die if they couldn’t be saved. I’d seen so much death, I could even determine who would live and who would die just by their screams. The only thing that kept me going, even today, is knowing that I’m the reason for the breath in the lungs of many men.
Sarah
My grandfather shot down nine enemy planes when he was in the war. He doesn’t like to talk about it. He says, most nights, when he closes his eyes, he’s right back in his plane, back in the death infested skies. He may be home, but he’ll never escape the war.
Kaitlyn
They took me in at their own risk, and now they’re dead. There was a banging on the door. I sat there – hiding – petrified. The door burst open, and they found me. Before they took me away, I saw the fate of the family who tried to help me. They protected me, and they paid the ultimate price.
Zach
I left for the war when I was young. I saw everyone die around me. Friends from school – old friends. And now the war has followed me home. The sound of a car back-firing; a book hitting the floor; even a pin dropped in a quiet room. I’m right back in the war.
Josh
After a while, you just emotionally shut down. Nothing shocks you anymore. You just…you just kind of live with it. I saw some terrible things in the Korean war. I saw POWs partaking in the march of death. I saw severed limbs and body parts just about everywhere I walked. It had no effect on me. I was able to completely ignore it. It wasn’t until a year or so after the war that it really started to sink in, and I started to realize what it was I had experienced and done.
Sam
It hurt to see all the violence and we couldn’t do a thing. We watched as the innocent where slaughtered. We were given guns that we couldn’t use. It was terrible. Man is the true beast if he can do these things to another.
V/O (Alyssa) as Meghan watches the news
Today, Canada has suffered another loss in Afghanistan. An improvised explosive device was detonated as the Canadian convoy passed. The blast was followed by a wave of insurgent gunfire. This death brings the total number of casualties to…
V/O (Jordan) as
Meghan hits play on the answering machine
Hi. It’s me. I can’t believe I missed you. I guess I got the time difference wrong. Anyways – it won’t be long now. My tour is up in less than two weeks, and then I’ll be home. I miss you. I miss our girls. Love you. Bye.
Max
Some people ask me about you dad. I tell them you died in the war before I was born. They say I must be very proud, and they ask me if I miss you. (pause) It’s hard to miss someone you never knew.
“Imagine”: Kadance and Naomi
“Last Post” and “Reveille”