A group of four history students were recently offered the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz concentration camps as part of an annual project organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust (UK).

Every year this project includes a visit to the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp which now stands as a museum to educate people on the horrors of the Holocaust. Following an early flight, our four students visited this site and returned back later that day. Whilst there they witnessed the many objects belonging to the victims of the Holocaust, rooms full of shoes and former belongings which served a shocking representation of the scale of murder perpetrated in the camps.

Upon their return the students were able to share their experience and help inform their local communities of the Holocaust so that it may not be forgotten. They did this in multiple ways this year. Many focused on individual stories of those who lost their lives, remembering them as people and not just statistics in a senseless slaughter. 

Year 12 students Oliver Pipe and Amy Gaskill helped their communities by returning to their secondary school and educating the students there on their experience and antisemitism as well as sharing stories of individuals such as Berta Rosenhein. Tim Crampton and Laura Anderson wrote an article on their experience and the importance of remembering the Holocaust and what stuck with them after their visit. 

We would like to thank the Holocaust Educational Trust for continually organising this. We have been able to send students every year and it is always eye opening to hear their experiences. The Holocaust Educational Trust was established in 1988 with the aim to educate young people from every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learnt for today.