History Department Trip - Poland 2011
On Tuesday 8th March 2011, 29 pupils from years 11 and 12 flew to Krakow, Poland, for a long anticipated two day visit organised for those studying GCSE History. The central focus of the trip was an opportunity to visit the World War II concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Pupils were also able to experience some of the tourist sights of the old town of Krakow.
Despite predicted temperatures below freezing, Wednesday's blue skies and bright sunshine provided a stark contrast to the sombre stories of life in the death camps of wartime Poland. Hearing such detailed accounts of the prisoners' day to day existence; seeing reconstructions of the living quarters and the places of punishment and death; staring in silence at the heaped, confiscated belongings of the innocent victims of hatred and prejudice; for all present, history became a reality which could never have been achieved only through books, pictures and film.
More than seventy years have passed since the terrible events of World War II but still around the world there is evidence of mans' inhumanity to his fellow man. Those of us who passed safely through the famous gates of Auschwitz will never forget its solemn warning to mankind. In the words of the Spanish American philosopher, George Santayana:
"The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again."
