The notorious Nazi death camps of WWII were the horrific culmination of years of antisemitism which pervaded the Third Reich.
Studying the Holocaust requires maturity and sensitivity in equal measures, and it is correct that the National Curriculum recommends that this topic is not studied until students are in Year 9. It is also appropriate that the minimum age entry requirement for visiting the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum is 14 years old. Learning about this infamous chapter in the history of the twentieth century is essential for every student, and this view is echoed by a recent survey of Year 9 students at PHS, who felt that the Holocaust was the most important event they had studied in history lessons during the academic year.
Visiting a concentration or extermination camp is a humbling experience. I have accompanied students on school trips to three very different camps, namely, Dachau (Munich), Sachsenhausen (Berlin) and Auschwitz (Krakow). Whilst the purpose and scale of each camp varies, the overwhelming sense of evil is consistent in all. Remarkably this atmosphere remains despite it being almost 80 years since the liberation of the camps across Nazi-occupied Europe. On each visit, I was immediately aware of the absence of life: the lack of trees, flowers, or bird song. It is almost as if nature feels the pain of the past and wisely chooses to steer well clear.
Students visiting camps for the first time are also struck by the reality of an environment that they have previously only studied in the comfort of their classroom. This heightened contrast between perception and truth has prompted students to consider how Holocaust deniers can question its existence when the evidence is so abundant, to trying to grasp the overwhelming scale and systematic organisation of the camps. Different aspects touch different students in different ways: for some it is the haunting black and white photographs of the victims taken on their arrival, and for others it is the overflowing pile of human hair or leather shoes. For one student it was the fact that Auschwitz was in colour. For them, and for most of us, Auschwitz is viewed in black and white, and seeing the camp on a sunny, Spring day provided the reality they needed to try to comprehend the incomprehensible.
The eminent historian Ian Kershaw has written that ‘the road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved by indifference’. For me, this is the very reason why I shall continue to take history students on trips to concentration and extermination camps. The importance of seeing and believing the horrors of the past, to help enable the next generation to create a more tolerant future, requires no further justification.
Written by Sarah Paget-Tomlinson, Teacher of History and English at Portsmouth High School GDST
