The learnings from our school trip to Auschwitz

HOW can we protect Holocaust memory?’

On the morning we were due to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau, I didn’t want to go.

I was so nervous as I knew what I was going to see would be hard.

It isn’t about how I felt though, the more important thing was taking the opportunity to learn and deepen my understanding about what happened. I am so grateful that I was able to go and I would highly recommend going. I think the best way to protect Holocaust memory is to face up to what happened, visit the sites to learn more and keep talking about it. As soon as we choose to ignore what happened we forget the six million people that died, along with countless others who suffered in other ways and open the floodgates to something like this happening again.

Being able to talk to a Holocaust survivor was a unique opportunity, and emphasised the importance of keeping their memory alive.

This could be done in numerous ways, namely talking to them and recording what they have to say for general accessibility.

As the Holocaust becomes further away in history it is of increasing importance that we preserve the memory of it.

Part of protecting the memory of the Holocaust is standing up to Holocaust deniers, anti-semitism and other attempts at wide scale (and small scale) violence.

Even if justice cannot be found for the Jewish population, ensuring that something like it never happens again and protecting the memory of the Holocaust is surely the most important thing that we can do.

JEMIMA St Bartholomew’s School