I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the lessons from the Auschwitz universities project. I embarked on a valuable journey of knowledge and education and I can now take all the lessons I learnt forward, to better understand and support our Jewish community here at City, University of London. 

I remember arriving at Radisson Hotel where the first in person seminar took place before flying to Poland the next day to visit. The seminar consisted of different speakers from UJS and the Holocaust Educational Trust, where they spoke about contemporary issues and challenges that the Jewish community as well as Jewish students within education face day to day. 

We then proceeded to go to break out rooms to reflect on the speeches the speakers gave by engaging in an interactive discussion within the group. Out of all the speeches that the speakers gave, I found the testimony of the Holocaust survivor Renee Salt BEM extremely important and valuable and it is something that will stay ingrained in my memory forever. 

The way she delivered her story made me  deeply sympathise with her. It almost felt like I time travelled with her, and I was able to picture all the details she mentioned and it was impossible to hold my tears back.

The next day I started to pack everything for our early flight to Poland. The whole group reached the Auschwitz- Birkenau Memorial and Museum where all of a sudden everything just felt more real, as we were all physically there where all human atrocities and genocides occurred.

I dived into a deep personal journey as did everyone else I am sure. In that journey I experienced so many emotions, including shock, grief, anger as well as questioning humanity. I remember, I kept asking myself “how is it possible that humans are capable of committing such horrors to one another?”, “How can humans be so evil?”.  I couldn’t fathom that human beings are capable of such evil things... 

We all left and proceeded to go to Auschwitz – Birkenau concentration camp, where everyone kept very quiet for most of the time. We were all taking in the information while processing all the feelings we were going through. I know I left this trip more knowledgeable about the struggles and challenges of the Jewish community. 
There was a quote that I saw during my trip and will now always remember. It reads “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. We should all remember and never forget the lived inhuman experiences of the victims of the Holocaust.