Year 10 are back from a successful international trip to Krakow, Poland. This one week international trip is strongly embedded in our curriculum and we get some extra financial support from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training to make it happen.
The trip is an excelent way to enhance our students's learning experience by giving them first-hand experiences.
Links to relevant curriculum
Part of the IGCSE History programme is a depth study of The Second World War in Europe and the Asia–Pacific, 1939–c.1945. Within that programme the students learn about how Hitler was able to blame the Jews for betraying Germany through the Treaty of Versailles, layout his views on the Jews in his book ‘Mein Kampf’, the popularity of the the concept of racial purity, propaganda and antisemitic education in schools. and exploit people's antisemitism in order to secure electoral votes and maintain his popularity after taking power. The students learn about the use of ghettos and the use of concentration camps in order to push forward the Nazi plan for the Jewish question. The unit ends by examining the ‘Final Solution’ and the post-war question of responsibility for the atrocities that were committed.
Visit to the Jewish quarter in Krakow
On Tuesday, we visited the Jewish quarter in Krakow, Kazimierz, for a guided walking tour. This tour focused on Krakow’s Jewish history and heritage—with visits to a shortlist of landmarks in Kazimierz, as well as the former Jewish Ghetto area. The visit lasts approximately three hours. Stops on the tour included a synagogue, where students learned about the importance of religion to the Jewish community, Zgody Square which was the main site for assembling Jews before deportations, and The Pharmacy Under the Eagle, a pharmacy in the Jewish ghetto, run by Tadeusz Pankiewicz who tried to help the imprisoned Jews.
(Photo by Mr Santos)
Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
On Wednesday, the students had a four-hour guided tour of the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. The trip begun by visiting Auschwitz. Students were shown where the first trains arrived and how the prisoners were unloaded and dispatched to their differing fates. They learned about the first camp where the Nazis carried out the first experiments at using Zyklon B to put people to death, where they conducted experiments on prisoners, and where they carried out most of the executions by shooting. The students explored the museum collection filled with personal artefacts from the camp's prisoners.
The second half of the trip involves the Birkenau section of the camp where the Nazis erected most of the machinery of mass extermination in which they murdered approximately one million European Jews. Students were shown the barracks and learned about the personal stories of prisoners lives there. One of the most powerful and moving experiences on the tour is the remains of the gas chambers which caused so much death.
Visit to Oskar Schindler's Factory
On Thursday, we visited the Oskar Schindler factory for a two-hour guided tour. Students learned about how Oskar Schindler and his factory employees helped save 1,200 Jews. We saw recreations of the original rooms and saw the personal artefacts and photos of the people who worked there.
Visit Wieliczka Salt Mine
We also had a chance to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow, one of the most famous salt mines in the world and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(Photo by Mr Santos)
(Photo by Mr Santos)
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