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A Day to Remember
EARLIER this year, two Sixth
Formers and I were lucky enough
to gain places on Lessons from
Auschwitz, a national project run
by the Holocaust Education Trust.
The project would be in 4 parts: an
orientation seminar, a trip to Poland, a
follow-up seminar, and a group project.
On 17th April, Katie, Nicola and I
made our way across town to attend
our orientation seminar in the centre
of Birmingham. Despite getting lost
(due to Katie’s dodgy navigation skills)
we arrived at the venue on time, with
a sense of anticipation – we had no
idea what the seminar would entail. As
well as being briefed about our trip to
Poland the following week, we had the
opportunity to hear from and meet a
Holocaust survivor – Kitty Hart. Kitty
talked to us in great depth about her
horrendous experiences during the
Holocaust – in particular about how she
survived the largest death camp of all;
Auschwitz-Birkenau. Although her story
was a sad one, much greater was her
message of courage and defiance and
ultimately survival. We were so inspired
by her story that we bought copies
“WE came to a gate with a motto above
it in iron lettering, silhouetted against the
sky: ARBEIT MACHT FREI – ‘Work Brings
Freedom’. Men who must have been in
a different part of the train were taken
through the gate, along with some of
the women. It was impossible to make
out which women were chosen or why.
The rest of us were formed into fives and
went staggering on, picking our way with
After visiting two Auschwitz concentration camps and meeting a Holocaust
survivor (Kitty Hart-Moxon), Miss
Graham, Katie and I will be doing a
feedback project with Coppice Primary
School. We will share our experience
with Coppice students, who will then
contribute to our exhibition with art
pieces and poems about the Holocaust; we hope to hold the exhibition
at Woodrush, so everyone feel free to
come!
Without sounding melodramatic, our
visit to Auschwitz was truly life-changing. While connecting us to individual
of her book and Kitty signed them
in person for us. I left that seminar
feeling truly humbled.
The following week, Nicola, Katie and
I joined over 100 other students and
teachers from the West Midlands, on
a memorable day trip to Poland – the
next part of our project. We all met
at 5am at Birmingham International
Airport to fly out to Krakow in Poland,
where we would board a coach to the
town of Oswiecim to start our guided
tour.
In Oswiecim we were joined by
the Rabi from the Central London
Synagogue (the founder of the
project), who showed us around a
restored synagogue which had been
taken over by the Nazis in World War
II. The town itself no longer has any
Jewish residents.
We then travelled a short distance
to Auschwitz 1 – the original
concentration camp – Polish army
barracks that had been transformed
by the SS and the Gestapo in 1940.
Here we saw the true horrors of the
Holocaust; piles of suitcases, shoes and
human hair from the victims who were
sent to the gas chambers. We walked
through the
famous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ gates and
wondered around in total silence…
Our final destination was another
short coach ride to Auschwitz-Birkenau
and no one could have prepared us for
the sheer scale of this camp. Our tour
guide was extremely knowledgeable
and showed us, amongst other things,
the ruins of the infamous gas chambers
used by the Nazis to killed over 1
million people (mainly Jewish). At
sunset we all took part in a memorial
service, led by the Rabi; we said
prayers and reflected upon what we
had learnt and seen that day.
Since that day I have felt the need to
tell as many people who ask (and some
who don’t) about our experiences.
Maybe so that we never forget that
it happened or can try to prevent it
happening again…
Miss Graham.
the help of the erratic glare from three layers of illuminated, electrified fencing…The
railway line petered out. We kept going
until we were halted at another gate and a
guardhouse. This was in fact the entrance
to Auschwitz II or Birkenau, though at the
times we knew nothing of the names or
the significance of this bewildering place.”
Excerpt from Kitty’s book ‘Return to
Auschwitz.’
victims of the Holocaust, it also made
it clear how many people actually
suffered and died. We hope that our
exhibition will convey this to people,
especially to the
primary school pupils, as it is essential that the next generation grows up
without any prejudice or racism.
Genocides and mass murders are still
happening today across the world.
The next generation could make the
step away from this violence; although
our exhibition will clearly not reach an
entire generation, it will reach a number of people, and that’s all it takes to
make the world that little bit better!
Written by Nicola – Sixth Form
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