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Right time to pull plug on costly trips to Auschwitz

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Published Date: 11 October 2008
As a history graduate, I, for one, applaud the plug being at last pulled on taxpayers funding the self-serving Lessons From Auschwitz scheme (your report, 4 October), more a glorified PR opportunity for career politicians and the Holocaust industry than any practical device for ensuring future generations remember history's blackest hour.
If Sally Chambers – a beneficiary of this scheme – truly believes her tired cliché that "nothing is like the experience of being at Auschwitz", (Letters, 10 October) then she needs to get out more. The Tower Of London – a short hop in comparison to Poland – boasts a near millennium of man's inhumanity to man, whilst Clifford's Tower in York remains a lasting testimony to our own homegrown Jewish massacres.

There is a wealth of books and factual films – including the nightmare- inducing autobiography of Auschwitz commandant Rudolph Hoess – readily available in high street shops, which could be made available to all schools and libraries for a fraction of the cost of the LFA, with what's left over used towards a proper commemoration to the Jews and others exterminated by the Nazis at the Sylt death camp on Alderney in the Channel Isles – Britain's own dirty little secret.

MARK BOYLE,
Linn Park Gardens
Johnstone, Renfrewshire



The full article contains 215 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 10 October 2008 8:14 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 11/10/2008 02:44:44
Why is the Sylt Camp BRITAIN's dirty secret. You didn't run it, Jerry did.

Nevertheless, you have a point about the Holocaust Industry (as some American Jews have dubbed it here), the chief purpose of which seems to be to discourage honest reporting on Israeli government war crimes.
Or maybe we could sponsor trips to see Palestinian civilians suffering collective punishment?
2

Itchy,

11/10/2008 09:14:39
Palestinians are quite capable of inflicting suffering on themselves.
3

Gdgy,

Dndy 11/10/2008 09:43:48
A history graduate decrying the value of personal experience.....that says a lot.
4

Dave,

Western Isles 11/10/2008 11:26:09
Gdgy

He's a history graduate. Unless he can invent a time machine, all his experiences will only ever be inpersonal with regards his chosen field. It is a very academic field and mostly book learned.
5

Gdgy,

dndy 11/10/2008 13:18:42
Yes and going to a site and seeing for yourself instead of reading and believing what you read can be invaluable....especially as history can be biased......
6

Mark Boyle,

Johnstone 11/10/2008 18:30:04
Ggdy, this is not about education, this is a junket, pure & simple.

In an era when too many kids are growing up believing every wacko conspiracy theory going, sending two middle class teachers pets (plus local education authority tagalongs) to Auschwitz is a luxury that cannot be afforded if squandering budgets means a thousand other kids then growing up believing the quack 'Holohoax' conspiracy theories of Richard Verrall (aka Richard Harwood) et al.
7

Mark Boyle,

Johnstone 11/10/2008 18:37:37
Tom in Belmont, Sylt is very much Britain's dirty little secret due to the part of the British government & the Channel Islands authorities to first pretend it never happened, then when too many that had somehow lived to tell the tale came forward to brush it under the carpet.

Only a tunnel and two entrace gate posts remain of the camp today. No memorial whatsover. To add insult, the other concentration camp at Norderney is now a camping site!

The scumbag in charge of both - Max List - never stood trial for running either site and went on to die peacefully of old age in the 1980s - all because the authorities didn't want it known that it HAD happened here...and that British citizens had collaborated in betraying Jews etc so they could then buy their property off the Nazis whilst they were sent to their deaths.

Like I said, Britain's dirty little secret.
8

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 11/10/2008 18:43:13
The way to avoid the inevitable biases that accumulate in the history books is to read more widely from historians with different perspectives, to accept that "revisionism" is normal for any historical field, and to keep ideology as far from the classroom as one can manage.

9

James F,

East Ayr 12/10/2008 15:20:48
Tom #8,

I don't see how you can keep ideology from the classroom.

If children aren't exposed to the moral morass into which we are regularly plunged by competing ideologies, they will not learn the basic lessons which underpin the teaching of history - ie that humans continually allow history to repeat itself; we should not repeat our mistakes, and there are some ideologies which are better than others (eg democracy is to be preferred to Arian supremacy).
10

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 12/10/2008 22:47:54
I don't refer to the teaching of what ideologies are or what they have led to in the past. I refer rather to determined propaganda efforts to inculcate kids into certain views of the world while not revealing to them (or their parents or the voters) that a deliberately one-sided view of things is being inculcated for sociopolitical purposes. If an idea is sold as a prepackaged "given", that is propaganda. If it is taught in a historical context, with supporting and opposing views and the chance to objectively evaluate evidence yea or nay, that is education,
11

WilliamT,

London 13/10/2008 15:38:55
If Mark pretends to be a history graduate (did he buy his degree on the internet?) he really needs to get his history correct about Alderney -
It was the only Channel Island completely evacuated during the war (with the exception of possibly one farmer ). There were no UK citizens there to participate, collaborate, help or in any other way support the occupying Nazi forces.
There are memorials on the island ( The Hammond Memorial amongst others) commemorating the final solution as practiced by the Germans on Alderney. No Alderney citizens "had collaborated in betraying Jews etc so they could then buy their property off the Nazis whilst they were sent to their deaths". Other British citizens elsewhere may have done, but NOT on Alderney, whose population returned after the war to rebuild their lives amongst the post Nazi rubble and the continuing presence of Nazi fortifications - which give islanders and residents an ever present reminder of the horrors of what happened there.

Looks like Mark has read a bit but knows nothing - but there again, being a long way away from where it happened, perhaps all he knows is through Wikipedia and the internet. It would seem he hasn't been there....
Where does this leave us? Yet again, seeing bile created to pander to one person's high opinion of himself and his intellect - oh, that's Mark, not that other scot, Gordon B...
12

James F,

East Ayr 13/10/2008 21:40:43
Tom.

I accept what you say. Fair comment.
13

Paul Sludden,

Glasgow 29/10/2008 23:40:41
I read with some bemusement this article and some of the comments. I feel Mr Boyle has completely missed the point of the LFA "beano" (as he seems to imply) to Auschwitz and fails to place the trip within the context that it takes place.

Having only recently taken part in the Glasgow trip to Auschwitz and the accompanying seminars, I feel I should perhaps pass on some of the invaluable lessons from the experience - for students and their educators - that Mr Boyle seems blind to.

While Mr Boyle seems set on condemning the work of the LFA on the basis of the expense incurred through the trip to Auschwitz, he neglects to mention that the trip is actually only one aspect of a series of educational experiences offered by taking part in the LFA project. Prior to and after the trip, invaluable experiences are shared and tutorials given on what would appear the relevance of remembering the Holocaust. As a student, I took part in a trip to Auschwitz when inter-railing around Eastern Eurpoe with friends. The experience was poor becuase I was not properly prepared for the visit: I was a tourist viewing exhibits, nothing more, and failed to recognise the importance of the memorial camp. As an educator, I have throughout the years "taught" pupils about aspects of the Holocaust, relying heavily on written texts and videos, the means Mr Boyle suggests we all learn and make do with. Nonetheless, having not only taken part in a trip to Auschwitz again but under the guidance of the LFA, but more importantly having one so in addition to the seminars offered by the organisation, I now see that what I concentrated upon when offering such lessons was wrong. Without this essential training, I would not have come to this realisation.

It is easy to view aspects of the horrors of the death camps such as Auschwitz in many documentaries or movies such as Schindler's List. The horrors can also be read about easily, too. Likewise, even Wikipedia manages to get the statistics rig
14

Paul Sludden,

Glasgow 29/10/2008 23:42:18
I read with some bemusement this article and some of the comments. I feel Mr Boyle has completely missed the point of the LFA "beano" (as he seems to imply) to Auschwitz and fails to place the trip within the context that it takes place.

Having only recently taken part in the Glasgow trip to Auschwitz and the accompanying seminars, I feel I should perhaps pass on some of the invaluable lessons from the experience - for students and their educators - that Mr Boyle seems blind to.

While Mr Boyle seems set on condemning the work of the LFA on the basis of the expense incurred through the trip to Auschwitz, he neglects to mention that the trip is actually only one aspect of a series of educational experiences offered by taking part in the LFA project. Prior to and after the trip, invaluable experiences are shared and tutorials given on what would appear the relevance of remembering the Holocaust. As a student, I took part in a trip to Auschwitz when inter-railing around Eastern Eurpoe with friends. The experience was poor becuase I was not properly prepared for the visit: I was a tourist viewing exhibits, nothing more, and failed to recognise the importance of the memorial camp. As an educator, I have throughout the years "taught" pupils about aspects of the Holocaust, relying heavily on written texts and videos, the means Mr Boyle suggests we all learn and make do with. Nonetheless, having not only taken part in a trip to Auschwitz again but under the guidance of the LFA, but more importantly having one so in addition to the seminars offered by the organisation, I now see that what I concentrated upon when offering such lessons was wrong. Without this essential training, I would not have come to this realisation.

... Likewise, even Wikipedia manages to get the statistics right when counting the death toll and such like. However, the focus here is on death and brutality alone and we neglect to recall that each of the individuals who perished in - or, if
15

Paul Sludden,

29/10/2008 23:43:34
Likewise, even Wikipedia manages to get the statistics right when counting the death toll and such like. However, the focus here is on death and brutality alone and we neglect to recall that each of the individuals who perished in - or, if lucky, survived - the Holcaust were individuals like you and I, taken from their normal lives and their communities. We neglect often to focus on that most important aspect - that the Holocaust affected lives - by focusing on death. We view on the now somewhat cliched portrayal of the Jewish victim, stereotyping the variety of different Jewish peoples (let alone non-Jewish peoples who suffered at Auschwitz, for instance) in the process. The dehumanisation of the victims - the shaven heads, striped uniforms, numbered identity - continues when we do such a thing, even if unintentionally, because we fail to recognise the diversity of peoples, the individuals from all different cultures from across Europe who suffered or died at the camps.

History books available to high school pupils rarely if ever focus upon the devastation the Holocaust had on individual lives and communities. For example, the small town of Oswiecim a stone's through from the Auschwitz camps was predominantly Jewish (56% I think) with several synagogues which were the community centres where Jewish people would meet and study and live life. Today, there are no Jews in Oswiecim. The main synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis early in the war. Toay, all that remains is a grassy slope where it once stood. In destroying the synagogue, the Nazis attempted to wipe out any sign of Jewish life, culture, identity in the town, to deny the existence of the predominant pre-war culture. By simply focusing on the deaths brought about by the Holocaust, we are equally guilty today.

This focus on life, not death, is one of the main focuses of the LFA project. As such, the project is invaluable as a history lesson for pupils and students, a lesson we teachers often fo
16

Paul Sludden,

29/10/2008 23:44:13
This focus on life, not death, is one of the main focuses of the LFA project. As such, the project is invaluable as a history lesson for pupils and students, a lesson we teachers often forget. As such, the project should be commended.

But why visit Auschwitz and at such expense? Well, why visit the scene of a crime if you are a lawyer or member of a jury at a murder trial? Simple. Photographs and video footage provide a two dimensional image of places - it is impossible to appreciate the true scale of things in a photograph, television set or monitor. Only by walking around Auschwitz-Birkenau can one truly appreciate the scale of the death camp. Only by walking there, can one appreciate slightly the endurance of those imprisoned there who had to walk the length of the camp plus some each day despite the cold and hunger and illness they suffered. Only by standing in one of the barracks, can one appreciate the impossible and degrading living conditions imposed on those crammed into quarters housing 800 people more than the 200 they were designed to hold. And is there not someting to be said of seeing, feeling and hearing things for oneself - experiencing video footage of the camp is not like experiencing the sights that surround you when you visit the camp. Add to this the input given by the LFA staff, and the chance to ask questions, to seek clarification and to reflect throughout the visit, and the merits of such an experience should start to become clear.

Nonetheless, the LFA project tutorials and visit are not simply aimed at providing lessons about the Holocaust, as Mr Boyle seems to mistakenly believe. The education before, during and especially after the visit go further. The name itself is an indication of this: not lessons about Auschwitz, Mr Boyle, but Lessons FROM Auschwitz. What can the horrors that occured there during the Holcaust teach us about how we chould live our lives today? What does an education about the intolerance of race, o
17

Paul Sludden,

29/10/2008 23:44:49
... What does an education about the intolerance of race, of cultures, of difference amongst individuals (remember the focus mentioned above, Mr Boyle?) have that is worthy to us today? Well, do the students even need to go beyond the classroom to know that bullying and intolerance of individuality and difference is a bad thing? Do they need to focus on genocide in Rwanda, for example, to say there is something yet that is amiss with the treatment of individuals and communities around the world? Of course not. As such, is there really a difficulty in comprehending that the lessons we should learn from Auschwitz are still as relevant today as they were in the aftermath of the Holocaust?

Unfortunately, by damning the LFA project in the way you do, Mr Boyle, by focusing on one aspect of the programme - the trip to Auschwitz - fails to recognise all of the above. In so doing, you fail to recognise the importance of providing such lessons to children today that go beyond simply the history of the Holocaust. You also fail to recognise that those present on the trip return to their educational establishments and pass on these lessons to the peers, through providing assemblies, classroom lessons, creating anti-bullying initiatives, orgainising whole school events within the school and the wider community that share these lessons, both in the re-humanising of "the Jews" and in passing on what we should realise from the Holocaust that we should do in life. Given the expanse of these further activities, and given the education also passed onto teachers like myself through the project (how much would it have cost for me to be given in-service training on such things so that I could right the errors of my own teaching? And would I have been offered the chance, given the tight budgets you seem more interested in, and given that my main remit is as English Teacher?), is the subsidised fundng of the LFA really something we should be questioning? I think the only answer
18

Paul Sludden,

29/10/2008 23:45:20
... I think the only answer to be reached is a resounding no.

In the present climate, Mr Boyle, perhaps venting your anger at the laudable aims but unfessibilty of Curriculum for Excellence as it stands right now, the obvious expense (far in excess of the LFa project funding) in launching it (or at least trying to muster something that can actually be launched!) and the obvious expense that will be passed onto taxpayers as schools attempt to implement it, would be far more fruitful and in itself laudable. Or perhaps questioning the billions used to bail out our banking institutions in the present climate caused by their own wrong doing would be better served and received than venting your disgust at a project whose aims are refreshing, whose lessons are essential, and whose efforts should be applauded in a time where we most need people to stand up for what is correct, no matter the personal or financial cost.
19

Paul Sludden,

Glasgow 29/10/2008 23:48:04
My apologies and thanks to all who read my comment. I was unaware that there is a limit to the length allowed, so have had to post it in several comments. Hopefully (the first part being repeated by accident aside!) it was clear enough to join up. I apologise also for taking over the board by posting so many comments as a result, but felt the need to say all of the above with regards the original article.

 

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