Lessons from Auschwitz: Mollie and Mia’s Story
Students at Coleg Sir Gâr have visited Auschwitz as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project.
The visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum formed part of a larger programme where participants are invited to online and face-to-face seminars and hear directly from Holocaust survivors who share their personal experiences.
Through their history lecturer, Dr Dominic Phelps, four A-level students applied for the programme and were successful in gaining a place.
Following the visit to Poland, participants are given an online meeting space to help process what they have seen and following that, they are asked to come up with a personal project to enable them to share what they have learned and experienced.
Dr Dominic Phelps, lecturer in history at Coleg Sir Gâr said: “The Holocaust Educational Trust is such a meaningful and invaluable experience for students.
“History is a living subject and this trip to Auschwitz and the live seminars gives you the opportunity to be in a profound moment in time, that books, films and documentaries can’t offer.”
We asked two of the students, Mollie Dwyer and Mia Williams, who took part in the Lessons from Auschwitz Project, to share their experience with us.
What made you want to get involved in attending the Holocaust Educational Trust programme?
When we first heard about the educational visit to Auschwitz, we were keen to apply as we are currently studying Nazi Germany in history and have previously studied the Holocaust in school. This has been an area of great interest for us since a young age, with Mia being interested in personal accounts such as the Diary of Anne Frank and Mollie having been interested since learning that her great grandfather was a prisoner of war in Germany. Additionally, we believe that it is important to educate people about the Holocaust and to keep the memory of the victims alive.
What was the most moving thing you took away from the visit?
During our reflection, we both found that the most moving aspect from our visit was the gallery dedicated to the children who lost their lives during the Holocaust. We saw numerous images, clothing and belongings from the children who were at the camps, a harrowing sight that will stay with us forever. It was an eye-opening and moving experience to see children our age and younger within the gallery, making us reflect on just how real the events truly were.
Has it had an effect on your historical studies?
An important part of the project was holding the perpetrators accountable for their human choices instead of dismissing them as simply ‘evil’. In terms of our historical studies, when learning about the perpetrators’ role in the events, we now find ourselves looking deeper into the human lives of these people considered to be ‘soulless’ and found that many of them lived ‘normal’ lives, with family duties and children. For example, one of the photos describes Rudolph Höss, the founder and first commander of Auschwitz I and how he brought his family to live on the site of the camp to be able to read his children stories before bed each night. Looking at it from this perspective, it makes our perception of these figures more complex, especially when they are generally presented as sinister and merciless.
Why study A-level history?
History at A-level is overall enjoyable for us to study due to its subjectivity as there are a range of different perspectives that explore why and how past events occur, making all viewpoints valid in shaping our social, political and cultural climates.
Mollie and Mia are now looking at options for their final project and are considering a short fictional story that would reflect what they learned from their educational trip who was taken to the camp as he has a Jewish background despite being a German citizen.
They are also looking at an informative poster that educates college students and teachers on the events of the Holocaust; perhaps focusing on the most moving aspect they found from the trip, which is the children.