How the LFA Project works

The Orientation Seminar focuses on the victims’ lives before the war and participants listen to the testimony of a Holocaust Survivor. The students are divided into small groups each led by an HET educator. Each group discusses their reasons for taking part on the Project and are encouraged to talk about their expectations and preconceptions about the visit to the camp and the potential impact that the visit may have on them. The seminar also provides a useful opportunity for participants to get to know each other before they share what for many is a very moving and important life experience.

The visit to Poland begins with participants seeing a pre-war Jewish site in the Polish town of Oświęcim. This new element in the programme helps the students to learn more about the victims lives and begins to re-humanise them as individuals. However, the day focuses on seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau. Participants tour authentic Holocaust sites and museum exhibits with both an Auschwitz-Birkenau museum guide and a trained HET educator who leads group discussions.

Sites that are visited include several barracks at Auschwitz I – registration documents of inmates, piles of hair, shoes, clothes and other items seized from the prisoners as they entered the camps are displayed within these buildings along with a general history of the camp. Participants are then taken the short distance to Birkenau. This is the site that most people associate with the word “Auschwitz” and where the vast majority of victims were murdered. The remnants of barracks, crematoria and gas chambers are in stark contrast to Auschwitz I and many people feel this has a greater impact on them. The tour of Birkenau culminates in a memorial ceremony held next to the destroyed crematoria II, led by Rabbi Barry Marcus of the Central Synagogue (pioneer of one-day Auschwitz Birkenau visits for community groups). The ceremony includes readings, a moment of reflection and ends with participants lighting memorial candles and placing them around the remains of the crematoria.

The Follow-up Seminar allows students to reflect on their experiences and the impact it had on them. The seminar is very important for participants, as often visitors to Auschwitz have a delayed reaction to the experience and many find it difficult to speak to those who have not been there. The seminar also focuses on the wider education of the Holocaust, genocide, racism, and bullying, both in schools and local communities.

After the Follow-up Seminar, participants design and implement projects in their schools and communities aimed at sharing their experiences and disseminating the lessons they have learned.

Follow-up activities in schools have included assemblies, displays and presentations on issues dealing with the Holocaust. Many students choose to focus on contemporary lessons of the Holocaust such as the celebration of diversity; highlighting issues such as racism and bullying in schools; current genocides around the world; active citizenship; and the dangers of being a bystander to racism. Students have written articles and poems for school newsletters, websites and magazines and others have arranged for Holocaust Survivors to speak in their school. One set of students invited a speaker who worked for the United Nations and helped set up war crime tribunals in Rwanda.

You can view examples of student projects in our Student Showcase.