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The “Lessons from Auschwitz” Programme By Eleanor Howland
At the end of Year 12, my A- level history class were presented with the opportunity to take part in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme with the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET). The programme consists of a briefing seminar, a day trip to Auschwitz Birkenau, a debrief seminar and your further steps. After sending in my application, I was fortunate enough to gain a place on the programme. On the 6th November 2017, I attended the briefing seminar in London, in which we spoke about pre-war Jewish life and heard the testimony of Rudi Oppenheimer. Hearing Rudi’s testimony allowed us to comprehend the Holocaust on a personal level. The next step of our programme was the visit to Auschwitz Birkenau on 14th November 2017. We first visited the Oświęcim town square which was a gathering place for the local town with a 58% Jewish population. The point of this visit was to reinforce the idea that all individuals involved in the Holocaust were humans and had their own identity. Arriving at Auschwitz had an extremely strange atmosphere that was different to what I expected. We arrived to go through security checks and collect our headsets, which allowed us all to hear our guide clearly. Approaching the gate immediately affected us all in completely different ways. As I looked around, I could read a unique expression on each face of my group and I wondered what they were thinking. For me, the gate represented the realness of the camp. I’m sure you have seen pictures of this gate, just as I had before visiting, but I doubt you feel a real connection to it. I felt that missing connection as I read the ironic phrase “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” meaning “Work sets you free”.
The deception of planting false hope of freedom into the minds of those arriving made me stop and think.
Once inside the gate, our guide took us in to a few of the barracks. The most difficult rooms for me were the rooms on suitcases, shoes, hair and other personal belongings brought by the persecuted, that we now know they did not need. The hair was shocking to grasp. We associate our hair with our pride and appearance; it shows who we are and gives us creative freedom. But they had that taken away from them.