Auschwitz

North Nottinghamshire College Modern Apprentices Ryan Wawrzyniak and Ashley Campbell, both 17 and from Worksop, were among 200 students from across the East Midlands who visited Poland for a day as part of the Lesson From Auschwitz Project run by the Holocaust Education Trust.

Before the visit, they heard from Kitty Hart-Moxom who grew up in the town of Bielsko, just 15 miles from the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau where it is estimated that 1.2 million people perished

She was a teenager when she became a prison at the death camp and is now a trustee at the Holocaust Educational Trust, telling youngsters of the unimaginable living conditions at the camp and why it was so important for people to see Auschwitz with their own eyes.

In Poland, the students were able to see all of the places Kitty had talked about – the wooden barracks where thousands of prisoners were crowded in, the remains of gas chambers and even pits of human ashes.

The were also taken to a Jewish cemetery in Oswiecim which itself had a large Jewish community before the war and where many of the gravestones were broken and used by the Nazis to build roads in the town.

After visiting Auschwitz, the group attended a moving memorial service at the ruins of Crematoria II and will now do further work to pass on what they have learnt within College and the wider community.

The two exhausted NNC students returned from the Auschwitz, speechless at what they had seen. They found it hard to comprehend what they saw and difficult to understand how such a thing could happen.

Ashley and Ryan

Ashley explained: “I found the experience shocking and when I got home I just didn’t want to talk about it. I just couldn’t take it all in.

“The whole area had an air sadness to it. It was grey and murky and there was no wildlife around -just huge black crows which are a sign of death.

“We heard how the ashes of the Jews were spread onto farmers fields for fertilizers, it was all quite unbelievable. Seeing the hair and pony tails still plaited, the cloths and piles of children shoes was particularly harrowing.

“Twenty of us went into a room and were told that 100 people would be kept in it. We had space to move around but could not imagine how so many people could fit in.”

Ryan continued: “It was surreal to think we were walking in the same footsteps as two million people on the way to the gas chambers. It was an interesting day, one I’m glad to have the opportunity to go on, but I would never go again. It was a once in a lifetime experience not to be repeated.

“We were walking around with several layers of clothes plus coats and scarves and still shivering temperatures reaching -9 and -10, how the Jews survived with just one layer of clothing is beyond belief.”