TOGETHER with their tutor, Head of History Jim Thomson, Exeter College A level History students Sam Kewellhampton and Isobel Fraser recently spent a day visiting Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of a nationwide educational scheme known as the Lessons From Auschwitz Project.

To secure their places on the trip, organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, the pair entered an essay-writing competition at the College, their task being to write a 500-word submission about Why the Holocaust is Still Important to Learn About Today.

Sam, aged 17, of Exeter, said: “I’ve always been really fascinated by history in general, and interested in how something so horrific could have happened. I saw the trip as a way to learn more about it. The experience was very emotional.

“The most significant moment for me was when we entered the rooms where people’s personal belongings were kept after they had been taken from them. There was a pile of children’s toys and, amongst them, a broken doll. I found it both upsetting and poignant.

“It is so important that young people are given the chance to learn about The Holocaust because torture and neglect still go on in the world today. If you consider more recent events in Rwanda and Cambodia, we still haven’t learned from it. There are examples of terrible abuse of human rights happening around us. Most of my generation no longer has the real accounts of grandparents who lived through World War Two to listen to, so it is vital that we are given a chance to learn about such events through education.”

Isobel, aged 19, of Seaton, added: “Standing on the same ground that was trodden by victims and officers an uncomfortably small time ago, I experienced a fraction of the claustrophobia that the prisoners must have felt.

“It was a warm spring day and I could pause to enjoy the warmth of sunshine, put on a warm coat when the sun began to set, and turn my back and walk out of the camp, following a path laid by workers and trodden on by many cold Nazi boots without fear of death or reprisal, an experience never realised by thousands of men, women and children.

“I left with a feeling of guilt, a shared responsibility for allowing hatred to remain unchallenged, and at the same time recognition for all I take for granted in my day-to-day life, and an eagerness to enjoy that liberty that so many soldiers died to protect.”

Praising his students for their high level of understanding of the subject matter and empathy with people from the past, Jim added: “Discrimination still exists, as do all the building blocks for extremist ideologies to gain power – neither have disappeared. There may never be a situation on the scale of The Holocaust again, but there is nothing to say something similar may not happen somewhere in the world in future. Therefore, it is massively important that young people today learn about the reasons why, and the consequences of, this period of history. While our visit could never be described in positive terms, it was an eye-opener for all of us.”