Elizabeth Clissold, Sixth form student at Ysgol Greenhill Tenby, responds to hearing from Holocaust survivors and a first-hand experience of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp...

Earlier this year I was selected to participate in the “lessons from Auschwitz” course.

It comprised online seminars and a one-day trip visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Krakow, Poland. The online seminars included hearing directly from Holocaust survivors.

The aim of the course was to learn about the history of the Holocaust and the role of camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau; to consider the individuals whose lives were affected by the Holocaust; finally, to reflect on the relevance of the Holocaust today and share my learning with others.

Holocaust Definition: The murder of approximately six million Jewish men, women and children by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War.

There were more than a thousand camps set up by the Nazis from forced labour camps, transit camps, and some which developed into extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Nazis were intolerant, mainly of Jews, but also of gypsies, gays, disabled, drunks, and some criminal groups. They dehumanised them which, in the Nazi’s mind made it acceptable to move these people by force to concentration camps. Millions of unnecessary deaths due to conditions and murders took place.

During the Second World War, Germany invaded and occupied other European countries. Auschwitz filled up with Jewish prisoners from them.

There were hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, Polish and French forced there.

At Auschwitz alone, in just one day, a similar number of children to the total in our school were gassed.

I do not understand the Nazi ideology of a superior Aryan race, where all should be white non-Jewish of European decent, typically with blond hair and blue eyes. Also, the belief that none should be physically or mentally disabled. Hitler himself and his some of his inner circle in the Third Reich (1933-1945 state under Adolf Hitler) did not fit the description of their own ideology. I suggest it was they who were subhuman.

We cannot change the past but can change the future. It is vitally important to learn from arguably one of the most significant horrific episodes in our recent history that is still so relevant today.

Whilst it is impossible to fully appreciate the horror unless part of the Holocaust, the survivors were brave enough to tell their stories to try and make us understand. They fear the world will forget the events.

Therefore, it is imperative these are carried forward in future generations to learn from these mistakes: to help shape our future, to be inclusive of all beliefs and religions and be a tolerant and equal one. And, if nothing else, just for the humane survival of our species.

—

ABRIDGED CHRONOLOGY

Early 1930s Life hard and country in depression but many groups including the Jewish can have a relatively normal life. They can own business and work and live where they wish. Children can go to school, play sport, theatre, music, join youth clubs and play with friends.

1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor. Schools start teaching in lessons that Jews were not humans. The Nazis try to get people to boycott shops and business owned by the Jewish. The first concentration camp has been constructed to house “political” prisoners.

1935 Nuremberg laws were passed formalising anti-seminist into the Nazi state. Now Jewish people are not classed as German citizens. All their civil and political rights were taken away.

1938 Children are now forbidden to go to school. A programme of child deportation to other countries commences. Germany annexes Austria

1939 Many Jewish people start fleeing Germany. WW2 commences after Germany invades Poland.

1940 Germany continues invasion into France. Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland is constructed. Jewish people are forced into a number of Ghettos in run down parts of cities. They are not allowed to exit without a permit.

1941 Any Jewish people over 6 must wear a yellow star of David with the word Jew on it. Germany invades USSR. After various trials into the methods of mass murder, large scale gassing commences. Some concentration camps now becoming extermination camps. The order of the “liquidation” of the Ghettos. The Jewish are either are either shot or taken to concentration camps.

1944 All the Jewish inhabitants of the Ghettos have been “liquidated”.

1945 From shootings to death camps to forced death marches the extermination continued until liberation of WW2.

If you wish to find out more, please follow the link to the Holocaust Educational Trust: www.het.org.uk