Lessons from Aushwitz

On Tuesday 8th October, three Year 12 students went on a day trip to Auschwitz as part of an event organised by the Holocaust Education Trust.  This was part of a project called ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ which involved the students feeding back on their experiences back at school. 

Naomi (12.2) and Hamira (12.2) went on to present an assembly on Aushwitz and the Holocaust to Year 9.  Hamira wrote the poem ‘A Visit to Auschwitz’ and Aiguin (12.3) wrote the following article.

Mr Meldrum – Head of Humanities

After getting to experience the cold surroundings of Auschwitz, I took some coldness with me, now knowing how it feels to be standing in a concentration camp.  The feeling itself was already eerie enough just knowing how many souls aren’t at rest, I couldn’t even imagine experiencing it first-hand. 

They had told us that the people that committed these foul acts against certain groups of people (mainly Jewish, coloured, gypsy, disabled …) were just normal everyday people, following the crowd. It scared me to know that all it took was a deep hatred to make people act out of order, forgetting all morality to the point mass extermination was a “positive” thing to do for the Nazi German economy.  You would think people would wake up to realise that that was horrifically wrong, and you’d be right, but those people were always automatically shut away with the punishment of death when revealed to the public. 

The rest of the world followed along in silence, with the use of false news and propaganda hiding the truth. With this you can see the damage it causes. It reminded me to always look for factual sources, and to never believe the first thing I see and mostly to keep my mind straight with my own morals for as long as I live. 

Standing in that massive piece of land, somewhere where you know so many people were in agony, was humbling. I felt privileged to be there and almost felt shameful for the people in charge, handing out orders, even if I was not involved in it. 

 We toured around both Auschwitz one and two and in both I could sense an amount of respect that everyone mutually had, which I was grateful for. They showed us the “beds” made out of wood, in which they were inhumanely having to sleep in, where there was the possibility that rats would feed on them if they were unlucky enough to sleep on the bottom bed. 

We also saw the infamous train entrance and spiky barbed wires rotating around the buildings. In Auschwitz one we were able to see the preserved remains and belongings of the victims such as mountains of hair, prosthetic legs or even their glasses and briefcases. 

I think this trip really helped me understand the Holocaust wasn’t just a collective group of 6 million people that died but each individual story with a personal story, that we should recognise and educate ourselves on. The most memorable moment was when I read out a prayer for the family of my RE teacher, who were victims to the holocaust; and while this was extremely sad, it showed me even more how real these people were.