Lessons from Auschwitz
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Students embark on 'Lessons from Auschwitz' trip run by the Holoucaust Educational Trust...
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
George Sanatayana, Italian Philosopher (1906)
On October 10th two of our sixth form students, Hanna Preston and Kirsty Taylor, participated in the “Lessons from Auschwitz” programme run by the Holocaust Educational Trust. The students had successfully applied to participate by submitting an application within Stockport Academy Sixth Form – 2 places were available to each post-16 learning institution in the country. This programme is run every year; the visits to Auschwitz are organised regionally. The whole idea is for the students not just to learn more about the Holocaust, but to try to learn from history, to see its continuing relevance today.
Hanna and Kirsty took part first in an Orientation Seminar, at which they explored preconceptions, expectations, fears, “dark” tourism, photography, and expected ways to of behaving when visiting a site such as Auschwitz, where over 1 million Jewish people, tens of thousands of Roma Sinti people, people with disabilities, homosexuals, and political prisoners were murdered. They also had the privileged opportunity to listen to the testimony of a Holocaust survivor, Zigi Shipper.
On 10th October we flew out to visit Auschwitz, which is near Krakow in Poland – FOR THE DAY!! It was a very early start – a 5 a.m. meet at Manchester Airport. There were 200 students, and a variety of teachers, journalists, and an M.P. also on the plane. After arrival in Krakow, we travelled by coach to the Polish town of Oświęcim – which was renamed by the Nazis as Auschwitz, once they had invaded Poland in 1939. Here the students were led through the village in order to picture pre-war Jewish life. This town had about 7,000 Jewish people out of a population of 12,000 – all of whom “disappeared” once the Nazis had taken over. The intention was to enable the students to see the victims not just as victims, but as normal, integrated people with normal lives, jobs, religion, hobbies, and families.
We then travelled to the concentration camp, synonymous with the atrocities of the Holocaust, Auschwitz. Here we visited various blocks, which were both a museum and a place of memorial. Students were led through an understanding of the Holocaust, including mass movements of Jews from all over Europe to Auschwitz. They were shown property left by the victims, including reading glasses, kitchen utensils, clothes, shoes and suitcases (they had kleft their homes believing they were being “re-settled”). There was also the chilling exhibit of human hair, all colours, and even some still in pony tails and pigtails. Students then saw the house of the camp commandant, the gallows where he was hung, and the awful gas chambers.
We then travelled up the road to Auschwitz II – Birkenau, which was built by the prisoners at Auschwitz, in order to cope with the huge numbers of people that the Nazis wanted to murder. This was enormous. They were shown the “barracks” where they slept, and the latrine blocks where they “washed” and went to the toilet. They listened to readings from camp prisoners. They visited the ramp where victims got off their cattle trucks and were selected – as useful for work, or useless and only “fit” for death.
After all this, students were shown an exhibition of family photos, which helped them to see the victims as real people, rather than just a number. They then contributed to and participated in a moving memorial ceremony, and then each lit a Jewish memorial candle, the Yahrzheit, which they placed throughout the death camp.
The return journey home was quiet – students were both physically and emotionally exhausted. They read further harrowing testimonies of survivors.
The follow-up seminar took place on Sunday 20th October, at which the students were able to express how they had felt, whether it was what they had expected, and what they might do now, as part of the final stage of the trip, the “Next Steps” project. Kirsty and Hanna are hoping to present assemblies to lower school students, as well as invite school governors to a presentation and Question–Answer session. They were hugely moved by this unique opportunity, and significantly, are motivated now to make a difference in their local community, by challenging the processes of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, in whatever forms they may take.
Mr Richard Demby
Curriculum Area Leader for Social Sciences