An Important message about the greatest travesty in human history.

1. “It is such a harrowing experience. It’s hard to believe
that human beings are capable of doing something so
awful to others. But it is a massive reminder that we
cannot allow something like this to happen again, and in
light of recent events and the way the world is shaping
up, I feel like this reminder is every the more
important.”
Student Reaction to Auschwitz

2. Don’t just focus on the 6 million, they all had names:
Iby Knill
Trude Silman
Heinz Skyte
Val Ginsburg
Leisel Carter
Iby Ginsburg
Martin Kapel
Every single victim of the Holocaust had a name. So, although it is important to acknowledge the scale of
this tragedy, we must also recognise that it was people like us who were the victims because it was the
humanity of these people was what the Nazis tried to remove.

3. Eugene Black
Eugene was born Jeno Schwartz in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia in 1928. He had a happy family life with 3 sisters and a
brother. His mother came from an orthodox Jewish family but his father, who was a master tailor, did not. Religion
played little part in Eugene's upbringing. In November 1938 the area where Eugene's family lived was given back to
Hungary. On 19th March 1944 German forces occupied Hungary completely. Immediately all Hungarian Jews were
ordered to wear the Star of David and within ten days the Jewish population was moved into ghettos. Eugene's
house was within a ghetto area, so his family took other people into their home.
On May 14th Eugene was returning home from school. 200 yards from home, he saw a German military lorry
outside the family home with his two sisters and father on board. He saw an SS man hit his mother across the face
and push her on to the lorry. Eugene wasn't allowed into the house; he was forced onto the lorry with the rest of
his family and other Jewish people from the ghetto.
Read More at: www.holocaustlearning.org/survivors/

4. At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz, around 90
percent of them Jewish; approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in
the Holocaust died at the camp.

5. Arbeit macht frei: Work will set you free…except it didn’t. This was
simply a lie to give the prisoners hope and keep them under their
control.

8. This watchtower epitomises the oppressive lives the people in the camp endured.
They had no freedom or hope. In many ways they were treated like lab rats, especially
seen as though many of the prisoners were the subjects of awful experiments.

9. Many of those within the camps were children who had
to suffer in these awful conditions deprived of a
childhood and dehumanised. Many would never see the
outside world following entry to the camp. Teodozja
Tadek died when he was just 17. 17 years old an all he’s
ever known is a life of oppression and pain and never got
to see the beauty of the world.
You’ll notice that he’s had his head shaved. They also had
their shoes taken away, any tooth fillings removed, any
personal belongings taken from them and stored away.
What was worse, having been left to rot for a number of
fears, most of these belongings were burnt out of fear of
the advancing Russians who were closing in on the camp.
So these personal items were never returned to their
owners.

10. This is the wall where a number of prisoners
were shot as a display to the other prisoners.

12. By the end of 1940, the SS had
confiscated land in the surrounding area
to create a 40-square-kilometre (15 sq
mi) "zone of interest" surrounded by a
double ring of electrified barbed wire
fences and watchtowers.

13. The picture on the left shows
the awful conditions the
prisoners lived in. They were
tight, and made of wood
meaning that they often froze
during the nights. Also they
slept in Maggot infested straw
beds. Also all the prisoners
suffered malnutrition meaning
they often threw up during the
night making for grotesque
conditions. The picture on the
right shows the toilets. You
were only allowed to use them
once and day and you had only
a short period to go. Also they
weren’t well cleaned causing
the spread of disease. The
prisoners were often the ones
forced to clean them.

14. Pigtail
A poem about the Holocaust by Tadeusz Rozewicz
When all the women in the transport
had their heads shaved
four workmen with brooms made of birch twigs
swept up
and gathered up the hair
Behind clean glass
the stiff hair lies
of those suffocated in gas chambers
there are pins and side combs
in this hair
The hair is not shot through with light
is not parted by the breeze
is not touched by any hand
or rain or lips
In huge chests
clouds of dry hair
of those suffocated
and a faded plait
a pigtail with a ribbon
pulled at school
by naughty boys.

15. Holocaust
by Sudeep Pagedar
- Selected Poems
How do you
explain that term
to a ten-
year old boy
who, one day,
hears it mentioned
by some relatives?
And even if
you do manage
to make him
understand what it
actually does mean,
do you also
tell him that
because he is
A GERMAN JEW,
perhaps, some day,
he might be
included in it...?
Or should he
just not be
told, so that
he remains calm
and doesn't lose
sleep over it?
But what is sleep,
in front of death?
Perhaps Death is greater,
perhaps the two are the same;
we do not know yet
but we'll know, by the end of the
day;
the Chambers are yet some hours
away.
"To die, to sleep...to sleep,
perchance to dream..."
How did Shakespeare realise that?
Did he know some Jew
who was persecuted too?
Perhaps he was wrong,
maybe he was right...
Anyway, I suspect we'll find out
by tonight.

16. All I ask is that you learn from the Holocaust, do not let something like
this happen again., stand up for those who are oppressed and treat
everyone as they deserve, treat everyone as humans.