‘You start to see the individuals’

Jan 28 2010 by Paul Mannion, Chester Chronicle

PUPILS from Cheshire schools who made the harrowing visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2007 were joined by Chronicle reporter Rebecca Edwards who spoke of her own sobering experience.

She said: “Faced with exhibits of tonnes of hair, tens of thousands of shoes, false limbs and suitcases confiscated from thousands of deportees on arrival at the camp, educator Tom Jackson told his group: “Don’t look at the pile, look at the individual shoes and think about who wore them and why they wore them to come here.

“The women wore their best shoes, brightly coloured with heels and good leather – you start to see individuals who weren’t necessarily prepared for slave labour or walking long distances.

“They brought shoe polish, hair brushes, clothes brushes and razors – they were expecting a future where they would carry on doing normal things.”

“Students also visited the neighbouring Birkenau death camp, which was built in 1941 as an extermination centre.

“There they saw the flimsy wooden sheds that each housed 1,000 inmates, and stood on the selection platform, where old, sick and infant deportees were separated from those able to work, then marched to death in the gas chambers.

“Finally students assembled at the end of the Birkenau railway line, specifically built to transport Jews and Roma gypsies closer to their deaths in gas chambers thinly disguised as shower rooms.

“In a poignant memorial service, project founder Rabbi Barry Marcus of London’s Central Synagogue told the students: “If we were to stand in silence for one minute for every victim that died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, we would have to stand in silence for four years.”

JOURNEY'S END: The end of the line at Auschwitz-Birkenau where hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered within minutes of their arrival. Picture by Kevin Hughes