Students to become ambassadors for the Holocaust Education Trust
24th April 2025 – Tags: A Levels, History
Two students from Paston College are working towards becoming ambassadors for the Holocaust Education Trust, after visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland.
A Level students Corey Maynard and Millie Wildash were given the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust after signing up for the Trust’s ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ course.
As well as travelling to Poland for the visit to the memorial and museum, the students have taken part in online seminars and heard first-hand from a Holocaust survivor, Eva Clarke BEM, who was born in the Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria, in April 1945.
Hearing directly from Eva left a strong impression on the students, with Millie commenting:
It was really interesting. It was really shocking. I was sitting there thinking, this is someone’s life, they’ve actually gone through that. The fact that it’s not even 100 years ago is quite crazy to me.”
Prisoner bunk beds in barracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
The visit to Auschwitz reinforced the students’ awareness of the individual lives and stories behind the overwhelming numbers of Jewish people who were killed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Corey says:
Instead of thinking of the Holocaust as 6 million people who died, instead of thinking of them as a figure, it highlights that they were individuals. These people had their own cultures, their own lives, their own experiences.”
Seeing the everyday personal possessions, such as glasses, shoes, and pots and pans, that were removed from the prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz, was another powerful reminder of the lives behind the statistics. Millie adds:
They didn’t know they were going into a concentration camp, they thought they were going to work, they didn’t think they were going to die. They brought all of their belongings that they needed to live. It was really sad. It was sobering to be there and think, that’s how they lived.”
A Level students Corey and Millie will be sharing what they heave learnt with other students at the college.
The final part of the course will see the students passing on what they have learnt through a presentation that will be shared with all of Paston College’s students.
A Level History lecturer Kat Wright said:
After the last of the remaining Holocaust survivors have passed away, there won’t be anyone left to learn from directly. By keeping this education going through the work of the Holocaust Education Trust, with students like Millie and Corey as ambassadors, hopefully the history will never be forgotten.
It’s about making sure that as many young people are aware of it as possible and of what can happen if you ‘other’ people and they become the enemy.”