Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, the international day marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. It is a day when we remember a world scarred by genocide – not only under Nazi persecution, but also the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Last October, a group of students and teachers from St Aloysius’ College secondary school, Birkirkara, visited Nazi death camps in Poland. The group, which included three teachers and 16 fifth form students, spent four days in Poland and visited both Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.

Thomas Sciberras Herrera, a fifth form student who formed part of the group, said the visit to the camps left a very strong im­pact on the students. “As we were walking in and out of the rooms, in the different barracks, we could see thousands of shoes, crutches, wheelchairs, baby clothes and luggage. We could not help but feel shock while visiting the furnaces that were used to burn the Jews. After visiting the camps, we felt so disturbed; none of us had words to describe the horror of what our eyes had just witnessed,” he said.

The  tour guide informed the group that her grandparents had been killed in the gas chambers at Birkenau camp and that when he realised he was losing the war Hitler had ordered all the gas chambers to be demolished.

Roberta Vella, the educator who organised the visit, said that being a Social Studies teacher she al­ways found it essential and interesting to learn about the past, especially about World War II.

A crematorium at Auschwitz where hundreds of corpses could be burned every day.A crematorium at Auschwitz where hundreds of corpses could be burned every day.

“I pass on this knowledge to my students during our discussions of topics such as politics, and most students showed a lot of interest in them,” she said.

 “However, they also found it difficult to perceive how people lived in totalitarian States and were constantly asking me to organise an educational visit to Poland – particularly to Auschwitz camp. They finally convinced me, and with the full support of the school management, I organise the visit.”

Asked whether the experience was too powerful even though as a teacher she knew so much about it, Vella admitted that reading about it is one thing, but being there, in person, is another.

“I will never forget the feeling of sadness I felt being there, especially while in the crematorium building and in the room where all innocent victims were led to supposedly ‘take a shower’. I will carry that feeling forever and I am also sure the students will remember it too. It was definitely an eye-opener, an experience of growth for all of us,” she said.

Vella encouraged other schools to take the initiative to organise such educational visits. “Through such experiences we learn more about the value of appreciating one’s own life and that of others. These experiences teach us to cherish what we have and be more willing to help and support people in need. They help us empathise more and take action,” she said.

Holocaust Memorial Day is not meant to be a day to dwell on the past, but rather to learn from it, and take action to create a safer future. In their daily life, students need to realise the consequences of prejudice and of the language of hatred.

Students must be moved to challenge. Living in our fragile and vulnerable world, a world still prone to genocide, our young people, need to understand that they cannot be complacent.  

Personally, I really feel that this has been an opportunity for our students to reflect on what Fr Pedro Arrupe, the Jesuit General, dreamt all Jesuit students to be: men and women for others.

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