South Cheshire College students have embarked on a moving visit to Auschwitz for the fifth year running.
Four students travelled to Poland to learn more about the horrors of World War II’s Holocaust through Nazi concentration camps.
In 2012, South Cheshire College students first took part in the specialist education project called Lessons from Auschwitz (LFA), subsidised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.
This year, A Level humanities students flew to Poland on a one-day tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau, as part of the same project.
This was followed by a day of seminars with other college participants across the country.
The Holocaust was the genocide of six million Jews during World War II while Auschwitz-Birkenau was a concentration and extermination camp where millions of Jews were killed.
Former Shavington Academy student Jack Karimi was one of the students who took part in the experience.
He said: “I now want to tell as many people as possible about my experience.
“I came to a realisation when at Auschwitz about how inhumane it was to so many individuals.
“I want to share this with people.”
Fellow A Level student Ollie Tyre added: “Travelling and taking a tour of Auschwitz was a very harrowing experience.
“Seeing all of the scratching on the walls was the most shocking part.
“You could also see the women’s plaits that had been cut off and still there to see – words cannot express what that felt like.”
Yvette Robinson, who taught the students in the AS English Literature class at South Cheshire College, said: “This experience was harrowing for everybody who took part.
“Seeing the concentration camp with your own eyes further highlighted the extent to which these atrocities took place.
“We’ve covered this point in history through the curriculum, but nothing quite explains it like being there.”
Will they write a piece in the paper to pass on their new knowledge?
I have asked my son, Jack Karimi and he is more than willing to write about the experience for the Nantwich News if they would like him to.