Sarah Hume, Warwickshire College

I was always told that the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust were horrific, and many of the persecuted had experiences that were unimaginable. So I didn’t. I didn’t think or even try to think. I just accepted the statistics - the number of people persecuted, the number of deaths - and thought of it all as an enormous tragedy, without ever getting emotionally involved.

I can’t do that now. Now, the Holocaust means something personal to me. I can’t just remain detached because I’ve seen Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. I’ve seen how human beings could be reduced to little more than cattle, how a handful of men could destroy lives and families, and indeed how death can ordered into neat rows and numbers.

The day itself will have an impact on me forever, I think, as new experiences awaken a new response to things I have seen.

During the heavy rain that pelted us on and off throughout the day, we took shelter under the gateway, standing on the railway tracks, and afterwards in the sheds. The irony that these places, places of such misery and pain, could provide us with shelter added a hint of black humour to my day.

Later, as we stood at the memorial at the end of the railway track, the rain abated and a rainbow appeared, perfectly arched above the now-distant gate. It almost felt wrong, like this place should be permanently lashed with storms and foul weather, but it fitted. Nature is reclaiming Auschwitz-Birkenau. The grass grows, birds not only sing but also nest in the sites of past horrors, and rainbows appear in true Hollywood fashion.

Seeing it all and experiencing just a little of what the victims of the Holocaust might have experienced has brought home to me that history is real. My history studies and my future degree in history have become much, much more than an academic exercise. It’s now a matter of discovery, and it seems that Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place where many lost their future, has provided me with mine – I want to teach, to make sense of past events so that I can pass on my understanding to future generations.