MP Supports Student Visit to Auschwitz
Barbara Follett has pledged her support for the Holocaust Educational Trust’s regional Lessons from Auschwitz Project which took students from the Nobel School in Stevenage to visit the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on Thursday 21st February.
More than 200 students from the East of England participated on the Project, which explores the universal lessons of the Holocaust and its relevance for today.
“I cannot underestimate the importance of visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau and recognising the full extent of the industrialised nature of the Holocaust. These events may have taken place over 60 years ago but as our society bears witness, we need to continue to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to the younger generations in order to fight bigotry and hatred today,” she said.
The visit was a unique opportunity for students to see what happened, to pay respect to those who lost their lives, and to explore the universal lessons of the Holocaust. They were shown around the camp’s barracks and crematoria, and saw inmates registration documents, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized by the Nazis. The students were then taken the short distance to Birkenau where a memorial and candle-lighting service was held to remember the 6 million Jews, the Roma, Sinti, gay, disabled, black people, and other victims of the Holocaust.
Notes on The Holocaust Educational Trust
The Holocaust Educational Trust was established in 1988 to educate young people from every ethnic background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today. HET works in schools, universities and in the community to raise awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, providing teacher training, an outreach programme for schools, teaching aids and resource materials. HET regard one of their earliest achievements as ensuring the Holocaust formed part of the National Curriculum for History. HET continues to play a leading role in training teachers on how best to teach the Holocaust and earlier this year, the Treasury pledged a three-year commitment to enable HET to administer a broad programme of teacher training.
In November 2005, the Government announced funding of £1.5 million for HET to support its Lessons from Auschwitz Project forteachers and sixth form students. In February 2008, the Government announced the continuation of funding for the Lessons from Auschwitz programme for a further three years from 2008 to 2011. The funding is enabling HET to facilitate visits to Auschwitz for 2 sixth form students from every school and college in the UK.
The Holocaust Educational Trust has produced a BAFTA award-winning DVD-ROM Recollections: Eyewitnesses Remember the Holocaust, in conjunction with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. The groundbreaking interactive teaching resource integrates testimony from 18 eyewitnesses to the Holocaust, including Jewish survivors, Roma and Sinti survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors and political prisoners as well as testimony from survivors of the eugenics programme.
Lessons from Auschwitz Project
The Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project for teachers and sixth-form students is now in its ninth year. The course is run over three non-consecutive days with the focus being a one-day visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The visits, combined with pre-and post-visit seminars, leave an unforgettable emotional and educational mark on participants. The Project aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust based on the premise that ‘seeing is better than hearing’ and to signal what can happen if prejudice and racism become acceptable.
Since the Projects’ inception in 1998, HET has taken over 6,000 students and teachers to Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as many MPs and celebrities.
Orientation Seminar
Participants are given the opportunity to hear a Survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau give testimony at the orientation seminar. During the seminar participants are divided into small groups which are facilitated by one of our educators or by a member of staff. The participants remain in these groups throughout the Project. Each group discusses their reasons for taking part in the Project, their expectations, preconceptions and the potential impact that the visit may have on them. It also provides a useful opportunity for participants to get to know each other before they share what for many is a very moving and important life experience.
Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
During the visit itself, students are first taken to Osweicim, the small town next to Auschwitz death and concentration camp where the local Jewish community lived prior to the start of the Second World War. The groups are then shown several barracks at Auschwitz I – registration documents of inmates, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized from the prisoners as they entered the camps. Participants are then taken the short distance to Birkenau. This is the site that most people associate with the word “Auschwitz” and where the vast majority of victims were murdered. The remnants of barracks, crematoria and gas chambers are in stark contrast to Auschwitz I and many people feel this has a greater impact on them. The tour of Birkenau culminates in a memorable service held next to the destroyed crematoria II. The service includes readings, a moment of reflection and ends with all participants lighting memorial candles and placing them around the remains of the crematoria.
Follow-Up Seminar
At the follow-up seminar participants discuss the visit, their personal responses and the impact it had on them. The seminar is very important for participants, as often visitors to Auschwitz have a delayed reaction to the experience and many find it difficult to speak to those who have not been there.
All student participants are required to disseminate what they have learned to their school and wider communities. Teachers and students describe it as life changing.
For further information please contact:
Aaron Kliner or Nikki Ginsberg on het@theproffice.com or 020 7383 3623
Issued: 28.02.08
Further information
Please contact Anthony Miller via the 'Contact' page, or by fax on 020 7219 1158.
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