A charity that takes youngsters on educational trips to Auschwitz has opened up the scheme to university staff following a reported rise in anti-Semitic incidents on campuses.
The Holocaust Educational Trust (Het) is encouraging vice chancellors, senior leaders and student sabbatical officers to visit the camp as part of its Lessons from Auschwitz programme.
Research by the National Union of Students showed more than a quarter of Jewish students experienced personal abuse through social media last year. Two thirds believed they were targeted because of their faith.
Het’s Karen Pollock said: “Over the past three or four years, student politics — or things that come up on student campuses with regards to certain debates — can become hate-filled.
“Increasing incidents of anti-Semitism on campus, and more generally, are becoming more of a thing.”
The trust partnered with the Union of Jewish Students for the pilot scheme, which launches next month. Ms Pollock added: “We felt [the programme] could make a difference. Going on a visit like this, it isn’t a punishment … it’s an eye-opening, hopefully fulfilling experience for minds and hearts.”
The London-based trust has taken more than 36,000 pupils and teachers to Auschwitz-Birkenau since 1999.
The Evening Standard joined children from 71 north London schools and colleges on the charity’s 200th trip.
Shauna Alokwem, 16, from Enfield County School, said: “When I saw the pictures [of victims] one of them looked like my great-grandad, so it brought to reality how serious this was and how it affected not just those who were murdered, but also their families and those from the same background.”
Classmate Nur Masoud, also 16, added: “When you’re reading it from a textbook … you’re not really engaging. But when you’re actually coming here and seeing for yourself, it really hits you.”
Fellow 16-year-old Hanei Mokenen, from Oasis Academy Hadley, said of the display items: “The hair I didn’t expect to see. Or toys, or keys. It’s normal things you wouldn’t think of that show these were people who had lives they were going to go back to … It’s powerful.”
Religious hate crime has risen by 40 per cent in a year in England and Wales. Home Office statistics showed Jewish people were the second most targeted group in 2017-18 after Muslims.
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