Yesterday, students from 12 Belgian schools took part in a commemorative trip to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp (more info in comment!)

19 comments

  1. Yesterday, students from 12 Belgian schools took part in a commemorative trip to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp (now Auschwitz Memorial). A meaningful experience, made even more significant by the presence of Simon Gronowski, one of the last survivors of the deportation.

    At 91, Simon Gronowski is one of the most important witnesses to the Holocaust among young people. Arrested with his family by the Gestapo in Brussels in 1943, he was part of the 20th convoy leaving Belgium for Auschwitz. This convoy carried over 1600 Jewish deportees, but was the only one to be successfully intercepted by the resistance! Three Belgians, led by Youra Livchitz, managed to free 231 Jews. 

    Among those who escaped was Simon, who was only 11 years old at the time and would, a few years later, be the only member of his immediate family to survive the Second World War.

    ➡️ It is therefore with great emotion that he accompanied these young Belgian students, 80 years after these events. This trip organized each year by the War Heritage Institute and the Belgian Defence, takes place in 2023 in a context where the importance of values such as democracy, freedom, equality and respect for human rights is greater than ever.

    The goal is to make these students aware of the horrors that took place in Europe less than a century ago, but also to make them “ambassadors of remembrance”.

  2. Went there during summer, even if it was 25 degrees and sunny it felt…cold and just downright depressing.

    Can’t imagine going there when it’s grey and cold.

    Also that gate and tower of Birkenau is smaller then you would think.

  5. My kid recently visited the Breendonk Memorial on a school trip and found it very interesting and sobering. Thank you for your work and please keep sharing it with reddit.

  7. I remember when I went there 12+ years ago. The train arrival section gives you a sense of the scale but it only really hit me when I saw the bin of cut off hair in the Birkenau section. Utterly disgusting.

  9. I went there with my highschool in 2015 or so. Weimar is dope. We were joined by a bunch of other schools too. Last day of the week everyone of our calls got absolutely smashed on booze and weed and it traumatised the teachers.

  10. In 2013 I participated in this trip, as a last-year student at my school. The memories of the trip I still carry with me today, it was very impressive and I’m glad to be able to have participated in it. Great to hear that it’s still being done today!

  12. I took part in this trip in 2001, it still has a lasting impression on me. Afterwards we had to give a presentation about it to all students from all the Limburg schools, it was impossible to relay that impression properly. Even now, I can tell about it, but you don’t understand until you’ve been there.

  13. Can anyone go there? I want to go after reading the happiest man on earth book.

    Any tips or website or something is appreciated

  14. I’ve been there in winter for a ceremony with the army. It was -40 degrees. Unimaginably cold, even with 4 layers of clothes.

  15. wow with Simon Gronowski, a most shilling story.

    Thanx to people like him, this hatred will never be forgotten.

  16. What a brave man, to go back to this place, even after so many year it has to bring the darkest memories.
    “I am twenty-four
    led to slaughter
    I survived.

    These are the empty synonyms:
    man and beast
    love and hate
    friend and foe
    darkness and light.

    The way of killing man and animal is the same
    I’ve seen it:
    truckfuls of chopped-up men
    who will not be saved.

    Ideas are mere words:
    virtue and crime
    truth and lies
    beauty and ugliness
    courage and cowardice.

    Virtue and crime weigh the same
    I’ve seen it:
    in a man who was both
    criminal and virtuous.

    I seek a teacher and a master
    may he restore my sight hearing and speech
    may he again name objects and ideas
    may he separate darkness from light.

    I am twenty-four
    led to slaughter
    I survived.”

  17. Went there in 2005… An experience as horrifying as it is eye opening. We need to keep this memory alive..

  18. The jews making the lettering for the motto over the gate turned the B upside down as a sign of defiance.

    They’ve been flipping the nazis the bird for almost 80 years now.

    /never forget, sweethearts. If you think ‘this could never happen again’, you’d be shocked at how fast that could change.

  19. i went on a schooltrip with another school from Leuven to Buchenwald once. that was a very interresting and sobering experience. all in all i hope school will keep doing trips like these for as long as they are possible.

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