AROUND 200 students from schools and colleges across Wales have visited the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz- Birkenau in Poland as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project.

Now in its seventeenth year, the project is based on the premise that ‘hearing is not like seeing’.

On the visit, students first visited Oswiecim, the town where the Nazi concentration and death camp was located and where, before the war, 58% of the population was Jewish.

Before visiting the concentration camp, students were taken to a Jewish Cemetery in the town of Oswiecim.

The Town’s last known Jewish person passed away in 2000 and a central grave was built for this person.

However, pupils learned that the gravestones did not necessarily correspond with the deceased because these were replacements after Nazis dug up the original gravestones to use them to build roads.

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.

Among the belongings were numerous pots and pans, shoes, brushes and suitcases.

Pictures of the prisoners held at the camp were also displayed in numerous buildings.

They were given a guided tour of the facilities and also shown were the Jewish people were taken to be gassed.

The gas chamber was created at Auschwitz I in late 1941 but in 1942 killing operations largely moved to Birkenau where two gas chambers were created in specially adapted cottages near the camp.

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 six – million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the other victims of Nazi persecution.

The visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau was preceded by a seminar in the UK where participants were introduced to Jewish life in Europe before the Second World War and heard the testimony of a Holocaust survivor.

The overall number of people murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau is estimated to be approximately 1.1 million people. They included: around 1 million Jews; around 64,000 Poles; around 21,000 Sinti and Roma; around 15,000 Soviet POWs and around 12,000 victims from other groups.

Other prisoners died from disease, starvation, exhaustion or brutal treatment by guards.

The students will now become ambassadors for the Holocaust Educational Trust and will undertake their ‘next steps’ to share their experience with their schools and their wider community.

Karen Pollock MBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “The Lessons from Auschwitz Project is a vital part of our work, allowing young people to learn about the Holocaust in a way they cannot in the classroom.

“The visit enables young people to see for themselves where racism, prejudice and antisemitism can ultimately lead and its importance is demonstrated by the inspiring work students go on to do in their local communities.”

Pupils from Greenhill School in Tenby and Ysgol y Preseli were among the representatives from Pembrokeshire on the trip.

Students described the experience as ‘surreal’ and added that they were shocked by the number of personal belongings that were on display at the museum.

One of the students commented: “The day was extremely tiring, both physically and emotionally.

“It was highly moving to see such genuine, re-humanisation of the victims

“One of the most educational days of my life, almost too much to absorb in such a short period of time.

“The experience at Birkenau was indescribable, and different to anything I have ever experienced. The atmosphere of the camp was heavy with tragedy. The size and scale of the place cannot be justified by words, it must be experienced.

“The ceremony, hosted by the Rabbi Marcus was invaluable to the experience as it gave a chance for much needed reflection and also the chance to get a deeper insight of the thoughts and feelings of the contemporary Jewish population.”

Another student commented: “Visiting Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau was such a surreal experience. Actually visiting the camps made everything more real than seeing the images on line. It was shocking to see the personal belongings in Auschwitz 1 where everything was kept behind glass.

“There were two sides of a hallway full of shoes – this made me think of how many were actually brought to these camps and had their innocent lives taken away from them for no apparent reason. Five minutes away was Birkenau, the death camp of wooden barracks – although many had been torn down by now.

“The living conditions in this camp were disgusting and brutal. To think people were made to live like this is totally beyond me and I dare even to think why something as horrible as this ever happened to begin with. 6 million murdered in the Holocaust – people with families and friends and lives, they had it all taken away from them by other human beings. It makes me wonder if humanity could go any lower.”