Sharing understanding: Godalming College students take part in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme
Upper Sixth History students Amelie and Zuzanna were selected for the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme earlier this year, having impressed their teacher Trish with some incredibly thoughtful comments in their letters of application. The learning aims of the programme were to find out more about the history of the Holocaust, including the role played by camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, and to remember that all involved were individual human beings. As well as understanding the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust, the aim was for the students involved to pass their understanding on to others.
Amelie and Zuzanna attended a seminar in London in the spring term, where they met a Holocaust survivor who told them about his childhood and experience of antisemitic discrimination in Hungary at the age of ten. The students found the seminar fascinating and touching, noting that it was innovative and added a lot of value to the programme. By the time they headed back to Godalming on the train, they felt prepared and enthusiastic for the next stage of the programme; visiting Poland.
Here, they explain a little bit more in their own words about the programme and the experience as a whole:
“The Letters from Auschwitz (LFA) staff helped us a lot in working towards our learning aims. We had two seminars in which we were put into small groups with an educator, to have small group discussions on the themes attached to the learning aims, like individuals and the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust.
A theme we found particularly interesting and helped us in creating our next steps project was ‘Individualism behind the Statistics’. This resonated with us a great deal, as we felt as though this theme is frequently overlooked when it comes to learning about the Holocaust in school. Appreciating the individuality of the those who had lost their lives as a result of the Holocaust really allowed us to see the monumental size of the event. Furthermore, we found that it is important to focus on individuals and not solely statistics, because by looking primarily at statistics you lose touch with how the loss of these six million people meant the loss of families, communities, teachers, friends, sport teams, creatives, and so much more.
At the first seminar, we got to hear from a survivor. This was very impactful, and taught us the importance and significance of survivor stories. Hearing from a Holocaust survivor allowed us to appreciate the Holocaust from a far more personal perspective and see how significant the Holocaust remains both today and for future generations.
For another part of the project we visited Auschwitz. Auschwitz served as the administrative centre of the complex and was the first camp built in Auschwitz, originally for political prisoners and prisoners of war. We also got to see Auschwitz Berkenau, which was the largest camp in Auschwitz, and primarily functioned as an extermination and concentration camp. Both camps were really impactful in their own ways, Auschwitz Birkenau for its sheer size. Its size can never be fully seen, due to the Nazi destruction of it towards the end of the war to try to cover up what had gone on in this camp. This was particularly seen when looking at the rubble remains of the gas chamber. With regards to Auswichtz, the book of names is a book that took up an entire room. We were told that not every Jew that was killed during the Holocaust had their name in this book, as the destruction of whole Jewish communities made it difficult to know the name of everyone killed. We found this very impactful.”
On their return to the UK, Amelie and Zuzanna then competed the outreach ‘Next Steps’ part of the programme, attending an online seminar to share their experiences of the event and coming up with reflective pieces of work to educate people about the Holocaust. Both chose to express themselves through the medium of art, with Zuzanna creating a thoughtful pencil drawing and Amelie a textiles piece, both of which are now displayed in the History corridor in college. Amelie explains her creation: "…the piece is meant to be portraying the individuality within the Holocaust and the loss of individuals. The flowers are made from the poems and writing of survivors; the yarn that overlays the piece is meant to represent the Nazis attempts at suppressing the Jewish community.”
We were thrilled to receive news that Amelie’s textiles creation was chosen to be selected at the Lessons from Auschwitz Ambassador Conference in July, as the organisers were very impressed with the quality of her work, describing it as ‘remarkable’.
The History Department hope to offer the same invaluable experience to students in this academic year – look out for news for this incredible opportunity!
