Projects of the year 2005-2006: reactions from students
A time for exchange and discussion is generally required upon returning from the study tour to give students the opportunity to speak. The written word is also a means of expressing personal feelings and reflections. Written spontaneously or at the request of teachers, the texts of high school students testify to the impact of the trip and the meeting with former deportees.
Auschwitz
After discovering the site of Auschwitz in February 2006, students from Terminale Bac Pro accounting department at the Louise Michel de Ruffec vocational high school created a travel diary combining photographs and personal comments.
Louise Michel Vocational High School - Ruffec (16)
The feeling of going to such a gloomy place as Auschwitz was, just thinking about it, hard to accept. We followed the trail of a million deaths for which existence in this camp was temporary. In any case, the illusions one has at the idea of going to a concentration and extermination camp are very far from reality. Indeed, in front of the Birkenau camp one feels a sense of humility and frustration as well as great respect for what may have happened there.
In the books we often hear about extermination but it is difficult to imagine the feelings that the deportees felt when they arrived in this camp. This trip could give me a little idea of the suffering and fear these people felt when they arrived. Seeing this huge expanse of empty buildings left me speechless: it was at that moment that I realized how many people had passed through here.
Sébastien Martinet, Lycée Saint Paul, Vannes (56)
I think this day will remain forever etched in my memory. It allowed me to better understand everything that happened there. Thanks to this day I was able to answer some of my questions. And now I think that I will be able to explain this moment of the story better to others.
Jenna Prou, Lycée Saint Paul, Vannes (56)
This trip to Auschwitz allowed me to better understand and see with my own eyes what our teacher had told us and what we had seen on video. By being on the scene, it really allows us to realize the atrocious things that happened in these camps. In the morning, during the visit to Auschwitz II Birkenau, I was impressed by the size of the site, but I could not imagine that I was in a camp where people had been deported to be exploited, then killed in a horrible way without any mercy. In the afternoon, during the visit to Auschwitz I, I was impressed by the objects that were displayed in the museum: shoes, suitcases, hair... thinking that all this had belonged to people. It left them speechless. Just like at the end of the visit, when we entered the gas chamber and saw the crematory ovens, it was strange to be there, the smell and the darkness of the room gave me a strange feeling.
Bertrand Tarroux, Lycée professionnel Louis Rascol, Albi (81)
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