Lessons From Auschwitz

The visit to Poland begins with participants seeing a pre-war Jewish site in the Polish town of Oświęcim. This new element in the programme helps the students to learn more about the victims lives and begins to re-humanise them as individuals. However, the day focuses on seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau. Participants tour authentic Holocaust sites and museum exhibits with both an Auschwitz-Birkenau museum guide and a trained HET educator who leads group discussions.

Sites that are visited include several barracks at Auschwitz I – registration documents of inmates, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized from the prisoners as they entered the camps. Participants are then taken the short distance to Birkenau. This is the site that most people associate with the word “Auschwitz” and where the vast majority of victims were murdered. The remnants of barracks, crematoria and gas chambers are in stark contrast to Auschwitz I and many people feel this has a greater impact on them. The tour of Birkenau culminates in a memorable ceremony held next to the destroyed crematoria II, led by Rabbi Barry Marcus of the Central Synagogue (pioneer of one-day Auschwitz Birkenau visits for community groups). The ceremony includes readings, a moment of reflection and ends with participants lighting memorial candles and placing them around the remains of the crematoria.