TWO Sixth Form students from Callington College travelled to Poland recently to explore the universal lessons of the Holocaust.

Marquita Gargan and Sydney Jenkin, accompanied by Annie Ramwell, head of art and design, visited the Auschwitz Camp as part of the Lessons from Auschwitz (LFA) Project.

The Holocaust Educational Trust, which was established in 1988, organised the trip in order to educate young people from every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today.

The trust's ground-breaking LFA Project is based on the premise that 'hearing is not like seeing'. It aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust for young people and to highlight what can happen if prejudice and racism become acceptable — and since 1999, more than 26,000 students and teachers have taken part.

During the first part of the project, the group had to attend an orientation seminar in Exeter, which was to help them prepare for their visit to Auschwitz and they heard from Zigi Shipper, who was a survivor of the camp, about how he survived and what life in the camp was like.

The visit to Poland began by visiting a pre-war Jewish synagogue site in Oszpicin which is the nearest town to Auschwitz and the group visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust sites and museum exhibits.

The tour of Birkenau culminated in a memorial ceremony held by the side of the railway, which brought the Jews to the camps. Rabbi Lewis led the service, which included students reading poems written by Holocaust survivors and a moment of reflection which ended with everyone lighting memorial candles and placing them on the railway tracks.

The trip to Poland and visiting the camps has been a life changing experience for those who attended from Callington.

Marquita and Sydney said they have been reflecting on their own lives and how the Holocaust continues to touch so many people and the important lessons that have been learnt by what happened.

Marquita and Sydney will now follow up their trip with an assembly to Year 7 students.

As well as working on a collective textile piece by Sixth Form students to highlight issues such as racism and bullying; current genocides around the world; active citizenship and the dangers of being a bystander to racism, they are also organising to link with a school in London to work on the project.

• The Holocaust Educational Trust works in schools, universities and in the community to raise awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, providing teacher training, an outreach programme for schools, teaching aids and resource material.

One of their earliest achievements was ensuring that the Holocaust formed part of the National Curriculum for History.