Walking Through History: A Journey to Auschwitz
On Thursday, February 6th, 2025, four Year 12 students had the opportunity of visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. Located in the Polish town of Oświęcim, it was an incredibly somber and reflective experience, one that offered a profound insight into the atrocities of the Holocaust, whilst also humanising both the victims and perpetrators. As the largest and most infamous Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau stands as a harrowing testament to the millions of lives lost during World War II. A visit to this site is not just a journey through history, but an opportunity to remember and honour the victims while gaining a deeper understanding of the horrors that occurred within these walls. This allowed for a more interpersonal and emotionally touching experience alongside exploring the sites themselves.
Below, this article is written by the participants to give an honest perspective on their experiences, including the day’s itinerary, and an insight into how the experience impacted each student.
We were informed by college that we would be participating in the Lessons from Auschwitz programme in late January, giving us only a few days to prepare ourselves for two very full-on days. Auschwitz is such a well-known place, you really don’t know how to feel when you’re told you’re going there for a day, without the comforts of having a teacher from college with us and with people we had never met before. It took these few days we had to mentally prepare ourselves for what we were going to experience whilst there. Our main expectation was that it was going to be exhausting and emotionally tough. However, outside what we hear about Auschwitz once a year on Holocaust Memorial Day or what we’re taught in school, we had little knowledge of the place itself. What we would see, what we would hear and how we would feel as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit a place of such devastation. We did however know what our main purpose was, that we were not going for our own benefit, but for the benefit of college and the wider community, to keep alive the remembrance and take onboard the lessons we can learn as a society from the horrors that occurred at Auschwitz.
The town of Oświęcim (better known by the Germanised name of Auschwitz) in 1939, had a population that was 58% Jewish. However, this dramatically changed during World War II, as the community was targeted by the antisemitism of the Nazis. On our trip to Poland, we were unable to properly stop here due to delays in travel, however our guide was able to show us the Jewish cemetery. He explained to us that the headstones within the cemetery may not match those laying rest there because they had been removed during World War II by the Nazis to use in road construction. Starting our day with this insight, really made us realise the full impact of the horrors and long-lasting effects caused by the Holocaust.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was just one of the six death camps that were located on Polish territory during World War II and had three sites, two of which we were able to visit. Auschwitz was developed on existing Polish army barracks after the Nazi invasion and was in use by the end of 1940. Birkenau was finally liberated on the 27th of January 1945. The exact number of people murdered there were is unknown, but it is estimated to be 1.1 million people. Upon arrival at the camp, prisoners were sorted into those determined by the SS officers to die and those who would be used for labour. When the war started, the prisoners were initially photographed and numbered. However, this changed and those destined by the perpetrators of the war to die were not registered.
First, we were taken to visit the site of Auschwitz I (the work camp) where the memorial museum displays the possessions and personal items of victims. These were discovered during the liberation, but what was found was only a fraction of what the perpetrators physically took form the victims, as most would have been sold, repurposed or burnt. The displays at this site were dreadful. Some of the worst exhibits being the room that held six tonnes of human hair, which the Nazis had woven into material and used to make uniforms for soldiers, and a room of empty gas canisters and shoes. I think the worst display was a room that had been filled with suitcases and keys because it was a reminder that the victims that had been taken to Auschwitz were expecting to return home.
The second place we were taken to visit was Auschwitz II, the site where the gas chambers, capable of killing six thousand people per day, were located. Here you could really feel the emptiness. Walking round we were shown the harsh living conditions of those who would have been forced to live there with poor, basic facilities. It was obvious to see the intention of the Nazis, and other collaborating perpetrators- stripping the prisoners of their dignity. We ended the day by participating in a memorial service at the ruins of Crematoria II. The fact that the crematoria had been ruined is proof that the Nazis wanted to hide what they had done. Sitting in the cold during this service really made us realise the harsh realities of the conditions of this camp because we were cold even though we were all wrapped up compared to what the victims of the Holocaust were given to survive with.
To conclude, it isn’t easy to process a somber experience such as this one overnight, it is a culturally detrimental piece of evidence as proof of all the lives of those who fought for their dreams, despite the barriers that pushed them down, as proof that they will always remain human figures in the history books. Despite it being such a hectic day taking two plane journeys to and from Auschwitz without a teacher, the experience proved to be a valuable one, with life lessons each of us will take away.