I would argue that this feeling and realization is far more vital to ensuring such events are not part of our future than this student remembering specific dates or statistics.
This student learned about the Holocaust twice in her high school career; once in the classroom and once at Auschwitz. I ask you to consider which experience will prove to be lasting, which she will use in a practical way in her life - regardless of major in college or her choice of career? Which experience will help to foster a sense of care for others, or allow for a sense of empathy for other targeted racial or religious groups?
Which experience will allow her to be an agent of love, morality, and truth in a seemingly ever darkening world? I’ll let a few of my students answer that question:
“When you first sit down to learn about the Holocaust, it might start with a history book’s interpretation of the event. Assigned readings often include The Diary of Anne Frank, or maybe The Boy in the Striped Pajamas or Night. Maybe you’re sitting in your classroom about to watch a movie or documentary on the events that occurred throughout World War II. No matter what it is that you are reading or watching, you are most likely doing it in the confines of your classroom, library, or home. That right there is the barrier between you and a lasting lesson.
Books, movies, documentaries, pamphlets, and presentations are media used to try to showcase and explain the events of the Holocaust. They try to depict stories salvaged from the remains of the concentrations camps. Books tell of the whispers that carried hundreds of names and truths that survived when the souls of the people who lived once before, did not. But no story, or lesson, no picture or video will be able to display any truth, or powerfully real emotions like ones you will get from visiting the concentration camps themselves.
When we push past the walls of our classrooms, and drop the bindings of our books, we are able to see more than the words on a page can tell. And that is the difference worth going to experience in person. Stepping foot onto the soil of Auschwitz is like walking through your history books, and then some. It's taking down the barrier of needing to know something and replacing it with wanting to know. The emotions you feel as you walk through the camp seem amplified in your body but are dauntingly small compared to the feelings of those who used to be forced to walk through that camp. The iron sign that hangs above the entrance saying “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work Sets You Free” was a boldface lie but to prisoners in Auschwitz it was a sign of hope and something that they could put their faith in, even if and when it killed them.