Lessons from Auschwitz

Over recent weeks Grosvenor Year Thirteen pupils Joanna Hayward and Emily Young have benefitted from the opportunity to participate in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s highly acclaimed ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme.

The girls’ participation in the programme began on 25th February when they attended their first seminar and were lucky enough to hear from a Holocaust survivor, named Janine Webber. The girls report that it was an amazing experience to hear from a real life survivor; however, they each became very emotional as Janine’s testimony proved extremely hard-hitting.

The following week the girls where then invited to fly to Poland, along with 150 students from other schools across Northern Ireland, where they firstly visited Birkenau, a Nazi concentration and death camp from the 1940s. Again, the girls comment that it is hard to put into words how they felt; however, they gained a lot of knowledge and can only describe the trip as a daunting experience. Next, the girls travelled to Auschwitz, where they received a guided tour around the camp and finished the day with a candlelight ceremony to pay tribute to the six million Jews that died during the Holocaust. Overall the experience was incredible and a life-changing one for both Joanna and Emily.

The girls have now become ambassadors for Auschwitz and will be required to carry out a number of further tasks as they set about completing the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme between now and the end of June. We wish them both the best of luck in this endeavour and look forward to reporting on their exploits again before long.