Teenagers learn a grim lesson in history

Robert Moore • Published 24 Nov 2011 10:00

AS you walk into the darkness of the former Polish army ammunition storage depot, your eyes are immediately drawn to the fingernail marks in the walls where those who died tried in vain to escape.

The ones who met their demise in this cramped bunker at Auschwitz were among the first to be unceremoniously herded into a cramped room before poison gas pellets were dumped on to them from above.

They were not the last.

The one day trip to Poland saw four youngsters from Dumbarton and the Vale head to Auschwitz was organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The schoolchildren are now tasked with spreading the word about their experiences so that others who have not visited the site can benefit from they have seen.

"Some of it was pretty horrific" said sixth year Vale of Leven Academy pupil Aden Ritchie.

The 16-year-old from Balloch added: "The first thing we saw - the gas chamber - was the worst thing we saw all day."

"The worst bit was the fact that the Jewish prisoners then had to burn all of the bodies and seeing it all here makes all it the more realistic" added fellow Vale Academy pupil Alastair Gilmour, 17.

Once the Nazis were sure everyone inside the gas chambers was dead they would force fellow prisoners at the concentration camp to search the bodies for any valuables before moving the victims into a neighbouring room and burning their bodies.

It was the start of a worrying trend and by March 1941 a decision was taken to build a sub-camp on the near-by site of Birkenau which would become the Nazis' main extermination centre.

Over the coming years an estimated 1.5 milllion people, the majority of which were Jewish, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The gas chambers used for the majority of killings at the site were made to look as normal as possible and were constructed underground and made soundproof.

Those being sent there were told that they were being sent to the showers prior to being admitted to the camp and were even told to remember the peg number on which they hung their clothes while undressing.

Upon their arrival at the camp prisoners were ordered to strip, had their heads shaven and had their possessions confiscated.

The remains of what was left behind is still on display in the Auschwitz museum including two tonnes of human hair which stretches the length of the 80ft room it is stored in.

"It's hard to grasp that all that hair is real" said 16-year-old Our Lady and St Patrick's (OLSP) pupil Emily Gibson.

Fellow OLSP fith year Iona Fletcher, also 16, added: "I don't think it's hit me yet.

"Somebody had their keys with them as they assumed they were going to go home but they never did."

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This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 22 Nov 11

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