Pupils learn about horrors of the Holocaust during Auschwitz visit

Reporter James Caven joined pupils as they made the harrowing journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on Wednesday, October 7.

About 200 schoolchildren from Barnet, Enfield, Haringey and across London visited the concentration and death camp as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project.

Now in its 16th year, the project is based on the idea that “hearing is not like seeing”, and aims to raise awareness about the Holocaust and its relevance today.

Arriving in Krakow after an early morning flight from Luton airport, we boarded coaches to the town of Oświęcim, better known as Auschwitz, where the camp was located.

It was hard to understand how anyone could live in a place which would be forever associated with genocide.

An estimated 1.3million people were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, from as far away as Norway and Greece. A total of 1.1million people died at the camp, 90 per cent of whom were Jewish.

The vast majority believed they would be resettled, and had no idea they were on the way to their graves.

Speaking on the site of the town’s former synagogue, destroyed during the war, Rabbi Garson, from the Ohr Yisrael Synagogue in Elstree and Borehamwood, said: “As a Jew, it is very painful to stand here. They wanted to destroy Judaism.”

He described Auschwitz-Birkenau as “the largest cemetery in the world”.

Rabbi Garson added: “You have to remember this – this was created by human beings. When we talk about the people who committed these crimes, who were they?

“Was nobody responsible? The Nazis created a system at the camp here where everyone took part in a small part of the death.”

The sun shone down incongruously as we then made our way around the concentration camp Auschwitz I, and walked under the infamous sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – meaning ‘work makes you free’.

Photos of prisoners are hung on the walls of the blocks, with haunting eyes which seemed to follow you as you made your way down the corridors.

Piles of spectacles, suitcases, artificial limbs, children’s toys and other belongings taken from the prisoners brought home the true horror of what took place there.

As we entered one room full of piles of women’s hair, our guide Andrew Date said: “This is the room which we perhaps become closest to the victims today.”

And as we entered the gas chamber, a sign starkly reminded us: “You are in a building where the SS murdered thousands of people.”

We then took the short journey to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the death camp where the vast majority of victims were murdered.

Many of the buildings, including the gas chambers, were destroyed by the Nazis as they fled the camp before it was liberated in January 1945.

Students spoke about the train drivers, government officials, guards, everyone who made the journeys possible, and questioned their guilt – did they know? Did they want to know?

They also spoke about the complete dehumanisation carried out during the Holocaust, about how prisoners were changed from human beings into mere numbers.

The visit ended with the recital of poems, prayers and the lighting of memorial candles at a ceremony led by Rabbi Garson.

Reflecting on the visit, Keziah Doudy-Yepmo, 17, a student at Woodhouse College in North Finchley, said: “I have had quite mixed feelings between being shocked, and not believing it happened. You have all these pieces of evidence here, like the shoes, but the scale of it is surreal.

“This trip took it further than just figures in a textbook. I was just thinking constantly throughout that these are real people, these were children’s feet in the shoes. I saw a picture of twin girls, aged six, and thought of my eight-year-old sister. It has made it a lot more real.”

Ashmole Academy student Nethie Savva, 17, said she chose to go on the trip as she hopes to study history at university next year.

Nethie, of Mayfair Terrace, Southgate, said: “Before we got here, we thought it would be muddy and dark, but the surroundings are actually quite green. Despite what happened here, life goes on.

“You learn about it in textbooks, and we have jumped into the scene. It is hard to fathom how many people it affected, even seeing all the displays, the shoes, hair and everything.”

Katie Cork, 17, also from Ashmole Academy in New Southgate, said: “It is a bit overwhelming, and hard to connect what actually happened and the fact we are here.”