Recently, two of our Year 13 History students, Harry Appleby & Tom Miller (both 13Ridgeway) had the chance to visit Auschwitz Extermination Camp in Poland. The Holocaust Educational Trust’s ‘Lessons from Auschwitz Programme’ runs trips to this infamous site to help ensure that the memory of the horrific events that took place there are not forgotten. Below are their thoughts on the visit:
‘I went to Auschwitz with the Lessons from Auschwitz project, and from this experience I saw what the camps were actually like as opposed to seeing them through a photo. The experience was eye-opening. It was a very important place to visit to realise what conditions the prisoners were put under and what they saw every day, which was incredibly moving. The size of the camp is something that no one can expect, and with the fact that these camps were built for one purpose, the Lessons from Auschwitz project is an experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life’. (Harry)
‘I recently visited Auschwitz Birkenau as part of a project through the Holocaust Educational Trust. The day at the death camps was a very emotional and interesting experience. I was able to have a tour of both camps and deepen my knowledge of the topic whilst learning about some of the individual stories of the people that were killed at the camps. I'm going to use the lessons I learnt on this trip to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in school on the 27th January and highlight the importance of learning about this tragic and horrific event and what it can teach us about the future’. (Tom)
As Tom mentions in his account, we will mark Holocaust Memorial Day as a School in January. Tom and Harry will draw on their experiences (as well as the preparatory and follow-up work that the Trust provides) to help lead the School’s events.
Mr Justin Barnett, Head of Humanities