This year’s Poland trip to Krakow and Auschwitz was another powerful experience for Year 10s. Time in the snowy, picturesque Old Town contrasted with the windblown site of the Plaszow site and the bleak barracks of Birkenau on a reflective journey through the Polish experience of the Holocaust.
On arrival the weather was unseasonably bright and warm, but by our last day the temperature had dropped to subzero and snow was thick on the ground. After dropping off our luggage we were taken on a tour of Krakow’s historic Old Town, still rich with Medieval features. Unlike other Polish cities Krakow had escaped intense bombing in the war, protected by Hitler’s intention of making this city the capital of his planned Eastern Greater Germany. From the Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz, through Wawel Castle and eventually emerging into the largest civic square in Europe pupils were treated to our guide’s expansive knowledge of Krakow history and legend. Possibly the most significant sight was the least prepossessing; a diagonal groove dug out of a doorway, once housing a mezuzah like those on any traditional Jewish home. The absence of the mezuzah, a decorated box holding a Torah scroll, symbolises for many the absence of Polish Jews after the Holocaust. Almost 60,000 Jews lived in Krakow in a thriving community before the war. Of the few thousand who survived, hidden or resisting, most moved away until number dwindled to the hundreds.
On our second day we took the tram to a suburb of Krakow to visit a public park which was the site of the Plaszow concentration camp. A forced labour camp first, it became a concentration and transition camp towards the end of the war. This was the camp from which Oskar Schindler, made famous by Spielberg, rescued over a thousand Jews from almost certain death under the cruel regime of its commandant, Amon Goeth. It has been a recreational park for many years, but memorial plaques and remains of the camp are now displayed throughout, and work has begun on a museum dedicated to the those who died – and those who lived – there. Pupils were attentive and respectful as they listened to our guide, visibly moved at times and resilient as the wind grew stronger and colder.
On our way back to the Old Town we took the opportunity to visit the site of the Krakow Ghetto and Hero’s Square, where 70 empty seats stand as a haunting memorial, as well as the last remaining section of the Ghetto wall.
Everyone enjoyed a lively and relaxed pizza in the Old Town that evening, well deserved after a demanding couple of days. The next day would be for many the focal point of the trip, one of the most infamous places in the world.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is immediately recognisable – the gates bearing the lie, Arbeit Mach Frei at the entrance to Auschwitz I; the gatehouse at Birkenau for train tracks bearing carriage after carriage of the Jews of Europe, from Scandinavia to Greece, more than a million destined for death. It is a difficult place to write about, despite the many books on the subject. It is difficult to comprehend. Hopefully the pupils experience of being there makes it real and immediate, keeping the memory alive in a new generation.
Huge thanks to the staff that supported the pupils on the trip, Miss Edwards, Mrs Warburton and Mr Brown, as well as Ms Man for all the hard work that goes into organising this and other educational visits. Thanks also to pupils for representing our school so well through all our tours and meals together, gathering compliments from all our guides and hosts.
