Lessons from Auschwitz Project

We have been fortunate this year to be awarded two places for our sixth form pupils (Ava Conyers and Abi Court) to be part of the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. This is a project offered by the Holocaust Educational Trust, that enables pupils to learn more about the history of the Jewish people, anti-semitism and indeed, the Holocaust itself. There is a short synopsis of the visit to Auschwitz that occurred earlier this month from one of the participants, Ava Conyers: 

“To say that it was upsetting would be an understatement. I don’t think I’ll ever experience anything close to how harrowing it was. It exceeded all my expectations and learning about it in school and seeing it in real life, are two very different things. I think when you learn about it and see images of what happened, your brain can’t quite comprehend it. You hear statistics of ‘6 million’ people losing their lives and that number is so huge, it takes away the fact that each one of those is a person. You forget that they had a life just like you and I and this experience is important because it gives us a chance to rehumanise those victims. They aren’t just faceless numbers and statistics; they are a reminder that we must never forget what happened in places like Auschwitz. Very ordinary people did extraordinarily horrific things. Antisemitism still exists today and there are even some people that deny that the Holocaust ever happened. It is vital that we come together to ensure that acts of discrimination and prejudice like this never happen again.” 

Ava and Abi will now be planning their next steps and how they can share their experiences with other members of the Wellington School community. They will be meeting a Holocaust survivor who will be visiting school next week and will be communicating their ideas in due course.

Mr Harrison