Walk in my Shoes booklet

walk in my walk in my shoes project | 2010 | .2

introduction...

Today Armagh city and District Council is a culturally diverse society, with new emerging communities residing in both urban and rural areas of the City and District. To ensure our community develops understanding of different cultures, it is important for Armagh City and District Council to make provision for resources at a number of levels to ensure this happens. The walk in my shoes project which was delivered with local secondary schools aimed to provide the knowledge, understanding and skills to enable young people to participate as responsible, active citizens in their local community and wider society. This is important as the youth are the future of this City and District and the challenge will be to encourage their involvement with programmes and organizations to assist them to self develop and challenge racism and sectarianism in our community.

Acknowledgements: St Patrick’s Grammar School | St Catherine’s College | Peace III Investing in our Future | An Monia Tober Traveller Support Project Coiste / Epic Ex Prisoners Support Groups | Belfast Islamic Centre | Rainbow Gay Men’s Project | TIDES Training Dobbin Street Community Centre | Steve Golicki (Community Volunteer for Project) | Participants of Project

Hello. We recently took part in a 12 week programme called Walk in my Shoes. Two schools came together and participated in the Project - St Catherines College and St Patrick’s Grammar School. The project was run by the Good Relations Department at the Armagh City and District Council and the majority of sessions took place in Dobbin Street Community Centre. We would like to invite you to take a walk in our shoes to show you what we have learnt during the project. I hope you find this journey enjoyable and educational.

1. | walk in my shoes project | 2010

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In our first session we were given a task to write down how society would label and refer to various people from the Black, Gay, Traveller, Muslim and Polish communities. This wasn’t very difficult because we hear a lot of these examples in everyday life. Once we had completed the exercises we were then told to highlight the positive words that we wrote down for each group. It was only then that we realized that we wrote down very few positive comments. We then discussed how someone from that particular background would feel about these comments and this made us think how we sometimes judge people before we even meet them.

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During the first few sessions of the project everyone was very shy and we tended to stick with the people that we knew from our school as we did not know the others. However we played a number of ice breaker games which helped us to relax around each other and get to know each others names. The ice breaker games were fun and enjoyable.”

“As part of our 12 week programme we took part in an Open College Network (OCN) Level 2 in Good Relations and Civic Leadership. During this course we learnt all about prejudice, discrimination, identity and diversity. Overall the course helped us to be more aware of diversity in our own communities. This was a really worthwhile course for us to complete as it was accredited to the equilivent of a GCSE pass which is something we can hopefully use in the future when we start to look for a job orif we decide to go to College. As part of the assessment for the OCN Course we had to develop a presentation to show what we learnt and how diversity is present in our society. One of the presentations that we developed was done in cartoon style and it was about a young person who was gay coming out to his parents and how they reacted to it. “ “During the OCN courses we learnt about diversity and the benefits of diversity. We learnt that Diversity comes in many forms such as age, culture, religion, gender and sexuality. We visited a number of different projects as part of a residential in Belfast that helped reflect how diverse Northern Ireland is. This was really interesting as it gave us the opportunity to actually meet up with people that we would not normally have had the chance to do so and hear from them how they get on with their lives here in Northern Ireland. The following pages will show you some of the projects that we visited during our residential in Belfast.

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residential in belfast...

“In Belfast we participated in a workshop which was facilitated by An Monia Tober Traveller Project. This was an interesting experience as we had different views from the time we entered to the time that we left. During the workshop we learnt about the traveller tradition and culture.

We learnt about the different languages that travellers speak (Gant & Gammon); how travellers come from all parts of Europe not just Ireland, about their marriage traditions, the styles of homes they live in and also that travellers come from both a Catholic and Protestant background. The main speaker during the workshop was a man called Mark but he also introduced us to some of his colleagues which included a traveller mother in her 60’s and 3 young traveller women in their 20’s which gave us a greater understanding of the traveller culture and traditions from different individuals.” } “In Belfast we also participated in a workshop by the Rainbow Gay Mens Project. Before we went to the Rainbow Project we were all nervous and very judgemental about people from the gay community. However upon meeting someone from the gay community and hearing their own story about being gay our thoughts changed and we started to understand that they are normal people just like us.” |

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We went on a murals tour of the Falls and Shankill Road. Most of us had not been to either parts of Belfast before and we didn’t know what to expect. After we heard both points of view from an ex IRA man and an ex UVF man we noticed that both men are willing to work together to build a better society for people in Northern Ireland. walk in my shoes project | 2010 | .5

We visited the Islamic Centre when we were in Belfast to learn more about the muslim religion. Before we went to the centre we were thinking about what the place was going to be like and would the people be the same as to the way they are portrayed in the media. When we got to the centre we all had to take our shoes off and the girls had to wear a scarf over their heads as this was part of the muslim tradition. We were then given a talk on the muslim culture and observed a muslim prayer and had a traditional muslim lunch. Overall this was a very interesting experience and it gave us the opportunity to ask questions about the muslim religion as many of our thoughts have been learnt from what we hear and see on TV. }

“We also took part in a disability workshop which was delivered by young people who had different disabilities themselves. During the workshop we learnt about different forms of disability and that we all could become disabled at any time due to unforeseen circumstances such as a car accident. We also had the opportunity to actually use a wheelchair and this highlighted how difficult it is to get around, particularly through doors that are not automatic.� |

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In this photo we are pictured at the start of our sightseeing tour of Krakow. During our sightseeing tour we learnt a lot about the history of the city and we seen some beautiful buildings such as the Cathedrals and the wawel castle. This was very interesting and showed how lovely the city of Krakow is as I was expecting it to be a run down, poor city but in fact it was the total opposite. |

study visit to poland...

“This photo shows us at the Saltmines. This was really good as we had to go 200metres below the ground which was fun. In the saltmines there was various floors and on each floor there was various sculptures carved out of salt. There was loads of chapels carved out in salt and this is where the miners would have prayed when they were working in the saltmines.�

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The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again George Santayana

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attitude of german nation...

We must free the german nation of Poles, Russians, Jews and Gypsies.

Otto Thierack, Minister of Justice of the Third Reich

Jews are a race that must be totally exterminated Hans Frank, Governer General in Nazi occupied Poland

The Poles are to be allowed to educate only to the extent that will make them realise that they have no prospects whatsoever as a nation.

Hans Frank, Governer General in Nazi occupied Poland

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jewish ghetto in krakow

This is a memorial stone that we seen during our tour of the Jewish Ghetto. It was interesting to see the number of synagogues, shops and restaurants within the Jewish Ghetto.

This showed that even after all the terrible things that happened to them during the holocaust that many of Jewish people still live in Krakow.

“This is a photograph of a plaque outside the Schlinder’s List Factory Museum. In the museum we learnt a lot about the history of Poland and the holocaust. This was very interesting and informative. We were surprised to hear our tour guide in the museum speak about Oscar Schlinder not as a hero of the jewish people that you would think when you watched the Steven Speilberg film. The tour guide preferred to call Schlindler a nazi business man who made a lot of money from employing jewish people to work for very little pay.” |

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A replica of the nazi flag is shown in this photo. This was taken at the Schlinder’s Museum. This image fills me with fear because the people who were loyal to the flag killed so many people during the holocaust

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overview of auschwitz Throughout the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide and the holocaust. The German forces occupying Poland during the Second World War established a concentration camp on the outskirts of the town of Oswiecim. In 1940, the Germans called the town Auschwitz and that is the name by which the camp was known. Over the next years it was expanded into three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II - Birkenau and Auschwitz III - Monowitz and more than 40 sub camps. The first people to be brought to Auschwitz and murdered were Poles. They were followed by Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies and deportees of many other nationalities. Beginning in 1942, however, Auschwitz became the setting for the most massive murder campaign in history, when the Nazis put into operation their plan to destroy the entire Jewish population of Europe. The great majority of Jews who were deported to Auschwitz - men, women and children - were sent immediately upon arrival to death in the gas chambers of Birkenau. When the SS realized that the end of the war was near, they attempted to remove the evidence of the atrocities committed in Auschwitz. They dismantled the gas chambers, crematoria and other buildings, burned documents and evacuated all those prisoners who could walk to the interior of Germany. Those that were not evacuated were liberated by the Red Army on January 27th 1945.

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Jews deported to Auschwitz arrived at the special railway ramp in Birkenau. Immediately after getting off the train, the Jews were ordered to line up into two columns, one for women and children and the other for men. Each column was subjected to ‘selections’ by SS doctors and medical orderlies, there and then on the ramp: the strong and the healthy were separated from the old, the sick and children. People selected as fit for work were sent to the camp. The others, usually 70 - 75% of a transport carriage, were sent to be murdered in the gas chambers. In order to avoid the panic, people condemned to death were assured that they were going to take a bath for disinfection.

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This is the entrance to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. You will notice that the writing above the gate says ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ - when translated into English this means ‘work will set you free’. The nazi’s used propaganda like this to make prisoners think that if they work hard they will be released from the camp.

Unfortunately as you will see this did not happen to many people.

Auschwitz was the largest Nazi German concentration camp and death camp. In the years 1940 - 1945 the Nazis deported at least 1,300,000 people to Auschwitz: 1,100,000 Jews | 140,000 - 150,000 Poles | 23,000 - Roma Gypsies | 15,000 - Soviet Prisoners of War | 25,000 - prisoners from other ethnic groups 1,100,000 of these people died in Auschwitz. Approximately 90% of the victims were Jews. The SS murdered the majority of them in Gas Chambers 14. | walk in my shoes project | 2010

auschwitz concentration camp - arrival

This is the main railway line into Birkenau. Many people came in these railway lines but most never left alive.

Due to the amount of people coming into the camp they had to have two lines. Once the trains arrived people were immediately selected for work or the gas chamber.”

“This photo shows the carriage that brought people to Birkenau during the holocaust. Many people were forced to go onto these carriages with no food or water for days on end. There were approximately 80 - 100 people forced into these carriages. Many died from dyhydration - in a way they were the lucky ones.”

“In this photo it shows the people lining up to be taken to Auschwitz.

As you can see in the photo there are different ages ready to be taken to the camp. They all think that they are being taken to a better place.

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These images display the belongings of the inmates who were forced to live in the concentration camps.

Unfortunately for the prisoners having to bring their belongings with them was false hope because as soon as they arrived everything was taken off them. This makes me feel sympathetic to all those prisoners who may have thought they were going to a place to live an ordinary life.

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identification of prisioners in camp “In Auschwitz prisoners had numbers tattooed on them when then entered the camp. People have suggested that this was because the SS officers found it difficult to identify the bodies that were killed. Survivors of the camp today still have the tattoo that they received on entering the camp which must be a constant reminder of their suffering in the camp.” }

“This photo displays the different types of symbols inmates of the concentration camp received on entering the camp.

Some of the different types of symbols highlight the discrimination that the SS Officers showed to people. For example there were symbols for political prisoners; gypsies and people who were gay. This makes us feel angry that people were taken as prisoners in the camp because of their nationality, culture or identity. People should learn to respect every single human being and not pre judge them because of their nationality or culture.” |

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In this photograph you can see the uniforms that prisoners at Auschwitz had to wear. These uniforms would have been very uncomfortable to wear as they would have been very smelly as prisoners would have to work up to 14 hours a day and wouldn’t have been able to change their clothes. The clothes would also have been very thin which would have been hard on prisoners during the cold winter months.

“Until 1943 almost every Auschwitz prisoner was photographed for identification. Later on only German prisoners and occasionally prisoners of other nationalities were photographed. Jews brought in mass transports were not photographed. This was one of the reasons why it is hard to put an exact figure on the number of Jewish people who were killed during the holocaust.” }

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Conditions in Camp...

Prisoners held in the concentration camp died from overwork, starvation, torture, exhaustion, appalling living conditions and medical experiments. Constant starvation was one of the main factors of degradation and extermination of prisoners. Daily rations of food contained 1500 - 1700 kilocalories while prisoners had to work approximately 11 hours everyday.

Prisoners who could not find additional sources of food mostly died after several months of staying in the camp. The living and sanitary conditions at Auschwitz II - Birkenau were extremely difficult. About 300 primitive wood or brick barracks were used to accommodate prisoners. The barracks were constructed on swampy terrain on the site of the Brzezinka village (Birkenau) whose entire population had been expelled before. In the first stage of the expansion of the camp (1941 - 42) brick barracks were constructed with the building materials from the seven demolished villages that were situated in the camp vicinity. Later (1942 - 44) wooden barracks of the “horse - stable� type were built. The barracks, originally intended for 52 horses, were filled with more than 400 prisoners apiece.

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“Here we see the environment in which the prisoners were forced to live in. It shows us the electric fences and watch towers and it shows how strict the security was and how unlikely it was to escape. If a prisoner was fortunate enough to escape past the electric fences there were still many watch towers in which the guards were on to look out at the prisoners. The guards would basically shoot anything that moved. This makes us feel pity towards the prisoners because it meant that when they were in the camp they had little chance of getting out.�

This photo shows us the toilet facilities for prisoners at Auschwitz. You can see that they were very unhygienic and this reflected the general living conditions that people had to endure in the camp. When you look at this photo it makes you feel disgusted especially the fact that you have no privacy and no toilet roll. It shows how lucky we are. }

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In this photo it shows the wooden beds which were cramped, cold, hard and packed with up to 5 people per bed. This would make you feel dehumanized because you have no living space. I think this was disgraceful and it denied people of their human rights. Diseases would be plentiful and would have spread rapidly throughout the bunk beds.

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“These are the wooden beds that prisoners were forced to sleep in at Birkeneau. These were intended for animals but due to the huge numbers of people held in the camp up to 5 - 8 people sleeping in each bed.� }

This is the toilets that the prisoners would have used in Birkenau. As you can see they are made of concrete which would be very cold and unhygienic. It was seen as a priviledge for those prisoners who had to clean these toilets as their job in the camp mainly because you had a roof over your head during the cold winter months but also that you would smell so bad that the SS Officers would not come near you so you avoided the daily beatings that others would have got.

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This is us standing at the front gate of Birkenau. During the holocaust many people would have entered through these gates and never came back out. There was an erry feeling standing at these gates and it made us feel sad that so many innocent people died here.

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it is estimated that 1.1 million people were killed during the holocaust...

“This is a tin of cyclone B. It was used to kill people in the concentration camp. The SS officers would crowd people into a room with mock showers and then open the roof and put the cyclone B in.

This makes us feel angry and sad that people could do this to other human beings.”

“In these photos the nazi’s are burning mass amounts of bodies. The ss officers in the photo show no respect for human life as one is just using his feet to move the bodies.”

“This photo shows the place where prisoners were hanged in Auschwitz. We learnt that up to 25 people were hanged at one time and often these were done in front of other prisoners to let them no what would happen if they did not follow the orders from the SS Officers.”

This is the crematorium chamber and lots of bodies were burned in here so that there was no evidence of their remains so that the Nazi’s could cover up what they were doing. Steve (one of the volunteers on the project) told us a story that he had read about were a 19 year old Polish boy who had to work at the crematorium had to lift thousands of bodies and put them in the burner.

However one day he spotted the body of his father and he had to lift it and put it in the burner. This must have been very hard for the young boy to do.

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This photo shows people who have died in the camp. People leave flowers on the photosgraphs to pay respect for their loved ones. The relatives of those that died in the camps have no grave to go to pay respect all they have is a photo of their loved ones in the camp were they were killed. This makes us feel sad that all those people died in the holocaust simply because of their religion. This also makes us feel scared that people could do this to other human beings because of what religion they are.

“Here we can see the pictures of many of the unfortunate children who were killed in the concentration camps. It shows them all in striped pyjamas with their numbers to tell them apart. This makes us feel sympathetic towards all these children because they had no source of identity and this would have made them feel worthless.� walk in my shoes project | 2010 | .25

In this photo it shows a 16 year old boy that has been taken to the concentration camp. We can relate to this photo because I am a 16 year old girl and I find it very hard to understand why that boy was taken to Auschwitz and killed for simply being a Jew. Just imagine how sad and scared that boy must have felt.

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medical experiments in camp...

This photo shows children being forced to participate in medical experiments while in Auschwitz. I think this is horrible because of the way they were being treated. I would be embarrassed and feel disrespected if this was me. The children must have been completely demoralized after these experiments.

“In this photograph you can see a child who was used in a number of medical experiments. The child is 2 years old and is one of triplet babies. This makes us feel really sad, especially when you look at the child’s face - you just couldn’t imagine the pain this child would have been going through.” |

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This is a photograph of the ruins of a gas chamber in Birkenau. It was blown up by the Nazis as the Allies were approaching. It makes me feel disgusted because the Nazis tried to hide what was happening. I think it is a disgrace that so many people were killed here.

Within the action of concealing the traces of crime since Autumn 1944 camp authorities liquidated mass murder facilities: Crematorium I in the parent camp was transformed into an air raid shelter In the biggest crematoria II & III in Birkenau mass murder facilities were dismantled and carried out to the Gross Rosen Camp Crematorium V which was functioning almost to the very end of the camp existence was destroyed a day before the liberation along with the empty buildings of Crematoria II & III

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After the liberation of the camp a number of survivors were found. In this photo you can see a 31 year old Polish woman who weighted 75 kg before she entered the camp and at the time of this photo weighted just 25 kg. Survivors like this woman were the main source of info for historians who enabled us all to learn about the terrible things that happened during this time. This woman has probably seen some of the worst things that can happen to people. These people are seen as heroes today and are very well respected by us all on the Walk in my shoes project.�

“This picture shows one of the fortunate survivors of the concentration camp. This is a girl of 14 years of age and she weighs just 3 stone. This is a perfect example of the cruelty and of how little food the prisoners had while they lived in the camp. This makes us feel sympathetic towards all those prisoners and to all those who were not as fortunate as this girl, and who would have died during the holocaust.

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This photo shows us laying a wreath on the memorial at Birkenau to all those that died here. We found this very sad and upsetting and it was nice that we could pay our respect when we were there. This was one of two wreaths that we left in Poland. The other one was laid at the death wall in Auschwitz.

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evaluation of project How would you rate the following elements of the Walk in my Shoe’s Project?

Do you think the Walk in my Shoe’s Project has:

14

Provided you with the skills and information to challenge society’s negative perception of people from different culture and traditions

12 10

00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14

08 06

Has changed your view of people from different cultures and traditions

04 02 00

the overall project excellent

education workshop very good

Belfast Residential okay

Helped bring people together from different backgrounds to look at issues of sectarianism and racism

Poland Study Visit

poor

Disagree

What did you like most about the Walk in my Shoe’s Project?

“I liked everything about the project­”

“It was very interesting but enjoyable at the same time­”

Unsure

Agree

“I learnt more about other cultures and made new friends­”

“Going to Poland to visit the concentration camps and learning new things­”

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S E C TI ON 1 : The Identity

NOR THE R N IR E LAND DE PAR TME NTS | 1 0

For Further Information please contact:

FullGood naRelations me vDepartment ers ions :

Armagh City and District Council Council Offices, The Palace Demesne, Armagh, BT60 4EL, Northern Ireland. t: +44 [0] 28 3752 9600 f: +44 [0] 28 3752 9601 textphone users: 18001 028 3752 9600 e: info@armagh.gov.uk w: www.armagh.gov.uk

The programme is part - financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (Peace lll) managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.

Armagh

City and District Council...