Lessons from Auschwitz

Jason Galliers and Tom Keep, both 17, travelled to the former Nazi concentration camp late last year to learn about how more than a million innocent people – mostly Jews – were murdered there under orders from Adolf Hitler’s brutal regime.

The visit formed part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ project, which encourages participants to pass on their experiences to fellow students.

“It taught me a lot,” said Jason. “In one of the rooms is a glass case containing tens of thousands of shoes that once belonged to Jewish prisoners, and they were collected in the last three weeks before the camp was liberated. It was very emotional.

“You can read about the Holocaust in a book but it’s not the same as being somewhere that was at the heart of it.”

Tom and Jason were two of 230 school and college students who visited Auschwitz, but the only ones not studying either History or Politics.

“It was a moving experience because it made everything real,” said Tom. “Seeing what went on there makes you appreciate the society we live in, and teaches you to not take things for granted.”

Holocaust Memorial Day is on Friday, 27 January, and Tom and Jason plan to deliver a presentation to fellow students as part of a programme of activities at MidKent College.

Also lined up is a talk by Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper at the Medway Campus on Monday, 30 January, and an art exhibition featuring work by the College’s art students, among other events.

Tom and Jason’s trip to Auschwitz was arranged by personal tutor Kelly Govans, who has also visited the camp in Poland in the past.

She said: “It’s such a moving experience, even now. Just speaking to the boys about what they saw made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“It was like being there all over again.”

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