Jane Kennedy, MP

STUDENTS from Liverpool schools recently joined Jane Kennedy MP on a visit to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Jane described the visit, organised by the Holocaust Education Trust, as "the most shocking experience of my life".

She joined students from the Blue Coat School, Broadgreen International School, Childwall Sports College, King David High School, St Margarets and Archbishop Blanch in vowing to act on the lessons learned from the experience.

The Liverpool group were amongst more than 200 other post-16 students from around the North West taking part in the Project, which explores the universal lessons of the Holocaust and its relevance for today.

Joining them was Gee Walker, the mother of Huyton schoolboy Anthony Walker who was murdered by racists. To view photos of the visit click here Students from Liverpool visit Auschwitz-Birkenau

The visit was a unique opportunity to see what happened at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to pay respect to those who lost their lives, and to explore the universal lessons of the Holocaust. The group was shown around the camp’s barracks and crematoria, and witnessed the registration documents of inmates, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized by the Nazis.

They were then taken the short distance to Birkenau where a memorial and candle-lighting service was held to remember the six million Jews, and the Roma, Sinti, gay, disabled, black people, and other victims of the Nazis killed in the Holocaust.

The course included an orientation and follow-up seminar, to prepare students for the visit and to help them reflect on their experiences. On their return, students give a presentation, based on their experience of visiting Auschwitz and the lessons they have learnt. In this way, as many young people as possible benefit from the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. Government funding has enabled the Trust to facilitate regional visits to Auschwitz, as part of its Lessons from Auschwitz Project for thousands of students each year.

Jane Kennedy said: "The visit had the most profound experience on us all. Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau brought home 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 younger generations in order to fight bigotry and hatred today.

"I will be interested to see how the Liverpool students communicate their thoughts and feelings about the visit experiences. I hope that they will help ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust are truly learnt, for generations to come.”  

Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “We are delighted that Jane was able to join us on the visit with students from Liverpool. The HET’s ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ Project is such a vital part of our work because it gives students the chance to understand the dangers and potential effects of prejudice and racism today on a local and national scale.”

In her own personal reflections on the visit, Jane wrote: "We are two hundred and thirty in number. All nine air and cabin crew from our Thomas Cook 727 come too.

"Auschwitz-Birkenau begs us to visit in silence. It is the notorious Camp II, Birkenau that fills us with awe and horror.

"The huge scale of the factory created by the Nazis to industrialise death is awesome.

"We have already been moved to tears by the mountains of shoes, the shaved hair from 40,000 murdered women and girls piled in an ugly heap, the soft clothes torn from babies displayed in a cabinet.

"But it is the silence of Birkenau that affects us all. Snow and a shockingly cold wind add to the chill. One million Jewish people, old men, women and children, walked along the same ramrod-straight road to the gas chambers that we now follow.

"Selected for immediate death, they never entered the camp. They were not registered. Their names not recorded here.

"All of us, students, teachers and I, trudge back after the short memorial service in silence. Our boots make the only sound. I felt enormously proud of these young people from Liverpool who paid sincere respect to the lost lives of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

"They, like me, must now break our silence and tell of what we saw."