One Day in AUSCHWITZ Wednesday 13th March 2019 – 4am; the alarm rings to signal the beginning of our journey to Auschwitz. This specific destination represents a truly horrific moment in time that should rightly be stored in the world’s collective consciousness – the systematic genocide of the Jews and other minority groups during World War Two. We knew that we would be walking amongst only a fraction of the physical, and psychological, devastation that stemmed from the rise of the Nazi regime across Europe, but there is little you can do to really prepare for the stories and sights we would come across. Fortunately, it would all be done along with other students chosen from various schools in Birmingham by the Lessons from Auschwitz Project in conjunction with the Holocaust Educational Trust. The plane was filled with students and mentors, some we already knew and had got to know via a seminar beforehand and some we got to know better on the three hour flight. To be honest this part was all quite enjoyable in terms of good-old fashioned socialising in addition to the breakfast on board. However with hindsight our heightened mood didn’t quite fit with the purpose of our trip and looking back later I reflected on the words of a Jewish speaker during our tour of the concentration camps in which he recalled how man can have the greatness to perform such feats, such as flying a plane miles above the sky, but also the ugliness to stoop so low as to exterminate many of their own just for being different. The skies seemed to be deadly serious in their attempts to remain bleak and grey throughout the day and this mirrored the disheartening context for our trip. Our tour guide was very helpful and brought a realness to our trip around Auschwitz. We went around Auschwitz I, stopping for moments of reflection along our trip. Although much smaller than Auschwitz II, Auschwitz I provided the most evocative emotions. Much of it was still left intact and we were able to see the thousands of former belongings of people who went in and unfortunately never came out of the camp. We spent the rest of our day at the larger but sparser camp, Auschwitz II. This was mostly burnt to the ground before it was liberated by the Soviet Union in 1945, but some barracks still remained. We listened to the poetry of Kitty Hart Moxon and Primo Levi, former prisoners of Auschwitz who survived and told their stories. Rabbi Barry encouraged us to not only consider those who died as numbers but as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. We were invited to consider how degrading Auschwitz II would have been for Jewish women who were shaved and stripped on entry to the camp, when modesty and their hair were important to their faith. At the end of the day we attended a ceremony which was very powerful. There were readings and prayers for the people who had died and for their descendants who still live with what Rabbi Barry described as ‘a personal grieving’. We must never forget the horrors of the Holocaust or any mass genocide. Treating one human as lesser sows the seeds of hatred that genocide and ethnic cleansing thrive upon. Until all discrimination in all its forms is eradicated we must always remember this event and strive to treat every human being with dignity and respect. We must learn from history, or else be ‘condemned to repeat it’. Jude Folorunso and Sid Raii 15