The Holocaust Remembered
Recently, Daniel Pearson and Lois Jermyn – students at QE - joined more than 200 other young people from the North East to fly to Poland to visit Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The group was brought together by the Holocaust Educational Trust whose aim is to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten and that lessons from history are learned.
Daniel and Lois flew from Newcastle Airport to Krakow at 7.00am and arrived back in Darlington at 11.00pm. It was a long, moving and memorable day which started in a Polish synagogue, took in Auschwitz 1 and ended in Auschwitz Birkenau with a service of remembrance at the end of the railway track which brought prisoners – Jews and others – to Auschwitz from all over Europe.
Lois says:
"I think we were privileged to be able to go to Auschwitz with the Holocaust Educational Trust. It’s hard to believe it happened only 60 years ago when my grandparents were young – you have to see it to take in the enormity of it all. It’s made me really appreciate how precious life is and how lucky we are to have our freedom."
Daniel adds:
"We take things too much for granted and we don’t always realise how fortunate we are. The scale of it, the loss of life and the devastation really came home to me when I saw the remains of the camps and the belongings of the victims – shoes, suitcases, spectacles, hair, household goods. I have learned such a lot and it will take me some time to come to terms with it."
Lois and Daniel were accompanied on the visit by Anita Blackburn who teaches History at QE and together, the three of them will work on a presentation to disseminate to others what they have seen and learned. In January they plan to lead a meeting of the College’s History Club and to be involved in events in Darlington to commemorate the Holocaust Memorial Day.
November 17, 2008