A small group of Franklin students have just returned from a trip to Auschwitz. Over the last few year's the college has taken several trips to Auschwitz and hosted talks by Holocaust survivors. These opportunities have enabled the students involved to experience history off the page and hence gain a clearer insight.
This is what Franklin student Charlotte Timmerhues had to say about the trip.
Before I visited Auschwitz I anticipated it would be an emotional experience as I had learned about the history and that a lot of people died, but just hearing the figures of the victims doesn't compare to being there and seeing the actual size of the camp and the scale of the damage caused by what happened. For something that occurred over 60 years ago the impact it has on you still remains strong as the site is well preserved and brings it to life more than anything I have ever seen. There was a room full of shoes, some small baby's, others men's work boots but the majority were women heals. They were all pilled as high as the roof on either side of the room behind glass cases, there was a bright red shoe in one of the pile. It just hits you that all these were people that didn't know that as they took their shoes off that they wouldn't ever see the sky again, these people were just normal people that had done nothing wrong. I can definitely say that to truly understand a historical event it is crucial to see the places it actually happened and to draw your conclusions first hand because figures alone don't do it justice.
The rest of the trip was amazing as I got to try things that I hadn't before. The food was great and the locals were helpful, even if they didn't understand much English they could point you in the way of Schindler’s factory and the main square. We had free time to use as we please and so we took the opportunity to explore the city which was wonderful.
