Auschwitz Trip – 07/03/2017

On Tuesday 7th March 2017, Alex Hardy and I visited Oswiecim, Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The trip was organised and run by the Holocaust Educational Trust, whose aim is to educate children about the Holocaust so that these terrible events educate future generations. We went on the trip with, approximately, 200 other students from across the Thames Valley and Chilterns area. It was a very moving and, at times, upsetting trip, but it is one that I will remember for a long time.

Firstly, we travelled to Krakow by plane from Luton airport and then took a coach to Oswiecim. This is the town that is nearest the Auschwitz camps.  There our group talked about Jewish life before the war. We looked at some old pictures of the market square and discussed how the Jewish population appeared to be integrated and accepted in the community, which was obviously not the case, less than a decade later, with the introduction of Nazi ideology.

From the town we took a short coach journey to Auschwitz I, which was the first camp built: constructed as a concentration camp it had a different purpose to a death camp. The tour guide explained how the selection process was carried out, to separate Jews on their arrival. Thousands of  articles belongings to the Jews were taken by Nazi soldiers, such as spectacles, pots and pans and the contents of their suitcases. Our tour ended by walking into what was a functioning gas chamber at this camp. It is the only one left from the time of the Holocaust: it was not destroyed by the Nazis because it was used as a bomb shelter. This part of the tour was very disturbing because it made people realise that this was the place where the mass extermination of Jews actually occurred.

Next, we took the coach to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was the second camp created in the area. However, this was designed to be an extermination camp with four different gas chambers located in the vicinity. These were destroyed at the end of the war by the Nazis, but the remains show where they were situated. Also visible were the accommodation blocks that workers lived in. This camp is renowned for the famous train tracks that brought people into the front gates. After a memorial service, led by a Rabbi who had joined us from London, we each lit a candle and placed it upon the tracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau to remember the people who died there at the time of Holocaust: they should not be forgotten and should be re-humanised by learning about their stories.

After the memorial service we travelled back to Krakow and the flight home.

The trip has given us much to reflect on and to discuss. What we learnt from the experience has been thought provoking because the horror of the Holocaust is, at times, difficult to digest. Alex and I both agree it was a trip that we will remember for a long time and will recount to educate people about the terrible events that occurred there during WWII.

Written by Matthew House – 13O