Diana Johnson MP and students from across Hull returned from the Holocaust Educational Trust's visit to the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau vowing to act on the lessons learned from the experience.
Diana Johnson MP joined more than 200 post-16 students from across Yorkshire and Humber on the Project. It was a unique opportunity to learn what happened at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to pay respect to those murdered by the Nazis, and to explore the lessons of the Holocaust and its relevance for today. The students will now use the experience to commemorate and educate others about the Holocaust within their schools and local communities.
Now in its fourteenth year, the Government funded project is based on the premise that "hearing is not like seeing". Students first visited O?wi?cim, the town where the Nazi concentration and death camp was located and where, before the war, 58% of the population was Jewish. Students then visited Auschwitz I to see the former camp's barracks and crematoria and witnessed the piles of belongings that were seized by the Nazis. Finally they spent time at the main killing centre of Birkenau where the day concluded with candle lighting and a period of reflection to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the other victims of Nazi persecution.