Thomas Meakin, The Perse School

The famous philosopher Georges Santayana once said ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. Nowhere does this maxim appear more relevant than at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

As part of the National Curriculum, British students are often required to study the Holocaust as part of a wider course examining the events of the Second World War. Having been fortunate enough to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, I now realise that this schooling is entirely inadequate in cultivating an appreciation of the enormity of events surrounding the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people, in addition to numerous other minority groups.

Six million. The true magnitude of this figure is, I believe, impossible to grasp. It is all very well looking at pictures, testimony, numbers, but even the most detailed textbooks cannot convey the extent of what happened at Auschwitz and in camps across Europe.

Ostensibly, Auschwitz I resembles a small town. The red brick barracks arranged in neat rows disguise the nature of the camp, that is until the guard towers and barbed-wire fencing becomes visible. A few miles up the train tracks lies Auschwitz II, Birkenau. The most immediately striking aspect of the camp is the extent of the complex. Row after row of huts stretch along the perimeter as far as the eye can see, but these are just a small portion of the original number that have been reconstructed for commemorative purposes.

Under the Nazi regime concentration camp inmates were systematically dehumanised. On entering, individuals lost all sense of identity; clothes, hair, possessions, all were removed. A life reduced to a six digit number in a matter of minutes.

Throughout history religious and cultural minorities have been persecuted by regimes seeking to establish themselves in positions of power. From the discrimination faced by Christian converts in 16th century Spain to the barbarism of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Holocaust represents just one incident in a preventable series of outrages.

And yet why does nothing change? Today we live in a world where religious and cultural tensions have begun to simmer under the surface of our society. The Holocaust and the experience of those who have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau should, and must serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of oppression, alienation and racism. Through organisations such as the Holocaust Educational Trust we as students can ensure that history never repeats itself again.