Auschwitz O


ne of the main aims of the Holocaust Educational Trust, is to educate young people about the Holocaust


and the important lessons to be learned for today, writes Matt. For us this began with the story of Rudi Oppenheimer, who gave a talk at our orientation seminar. He told the story of how he lost most of his family in the Holocaust, a story recorded by his brother, Paul, in the book ‘From Belsen to Buckingham Palace’.


Birkenau was very different, the most distinguishing feature being its sheer scale, seeming to go on forever. What struck me about Birkenau was the


Matt and Leo are pictured with Rudi Oppenheimer When we approached Auschwitz 1, although it was


very busy, I could still feel the history in the absence of what once was. This feeling of emptiness only grew as we


proceeded to walk around the site. A shoe without an owner. A suitcase hollowed of its contents. A pair of glasses that must have been witness to so much of someone’s life, but now laying in a chaotic mess of others. Indistinguishable. This it is why it is so important to contemplate the individual in this situation rather than using facts such as ‘one million dead’, because if we do so, we only distance ourselves from the reality.


The Sibfordian / 27


destroyed crematorium. The fact that the Nazi’s knew of the enormity of their crime, and in doing so, attempted to destroy all evidence, comes to show that these weren’t monsters who caused these atrocities, but people with moral compasses that knew exactly what they were doing. I believe that, if we do not have the will to acknowledge these events, then we are ultimately doomed to repeat them.


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