On November 6th 2008, as part of The Lessons from Auschwitz project, we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps. Organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, the four-stage project’s aim is to educate and inform A-Level students ofnot only the effects, but also the causes of the Holocaust, and subsequently spread the lessons to be learnt from the tragedy.On arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the shocking scale and meticulous planning of the camp became really apparent. The sheds created to store animals would be where hundreds of prisoners would sleep, and the watchtower by the Birkenau entrance overlooked the rail-line symbolising the industrial nature of the Holocaust, acting as the most cost-effective manner of transporting Holocaust victims directly to their execution. Visiting the camp restored the humanitarian loss of the Holocaust which is very often absent in literature dealingwith the tragedy.
The countless items of camp’s victims are now preserved behind glass viewing cabinets, acting as inanimate witnesses of the terror. The array of photos in the museum show the stark contrast from the happy pre-war lives of Holocaust victims to the registrationphotos taken upon entrance to the camp, the sadness yet defiance in the face of intolerance and inhumanity. From this experience, we have gained a profound insight into how radical ideologies must not be tolerated. We owe it to the 1.2 million victims of Auschwitz, and the six billion Jews who perished in the Holocaust, to secure a future without intolerance and injustice, so that a similar atrocity can never occur again.
By Nick Nicou and Joe Smart, Year 13
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