PEOPLE up and down the country are remembering the victims of the Holocaust today.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on January 27 each year.

The memoral day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the largest mass murder in history.

In the lead up to and on Holocaust Memorial Day, thousands of commemorative events have been arranged across the country.

In November, Northwich teenager Lauren Novelli, 17, visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is her story.

Northwich Guardian:

Lauren Novelli and Olivia Brougham (who also participated in the project, on the left) stood next to the train tracks leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau

Last year I took part in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Programme. 

This involved participating in two seminars in Manchester and going to Poland to visit the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau along with other students from the north west. 

In the first seminar, we all learned about what life was like for a Jewish citizen living in pre-war Europe and heard a fascinating talk from Holocaust survivor, Stephen Frank, on his experiences and what it was like growing up at this time.

Before the rise of the Nazi Party, Jews were considered normal people who had the same rights as every other citizen in Germany.

They didn’t consider themselves foremost ‘Jewish’ but ‘German’.

Gradually, these rights were taken away from the Jewish population and it is hard to imagine growing up in Nazi Germany being a Jewish child, somehow being different to all the other children but not understanding why.

On November 15, we visited Poland.

The day began by visiting the town of Oświęcim, more commonly known by the German name of Auschwitz.

Northwich Guardian:

Barbed wire separates two barracks

Here we observed the town where pre-war Jews would visit the market place and it really hit me how these people had lives, hopes and dreams before becoming victims of the Holocaust, they were just ordinary people integrated in society.

We then visited the camp of Auschwitz.

It is one thing being in a seminar learning about the horrific events that took place there, but standing in a place where millions of Jews were sent to their deaths is quite another.

What hit me about visiting Auschwitz most was going into the gas chamber where the murder took place.

It is a surreal feeling and one no one can describe to you, standing in a place where such horror took place.

In the silence, I observed the scratches on the walls and the openings in the ceiling where the Zyklon B was dropped into the chamber, killing thousands at once.

It made me feel sick to my stomach, extremely uncomfortable, vulnerable and emotional thinking about this awful end to innocent life.

Our final, and possibly the most emotional visit was to Auschwitz Birkenau.

We stood on the iconic train tracks that brought various groups from all over Europe and even though we were stood there, it is quite unimaginable to think of what the scene was like 71 years prior to our visit.

Northwich Guardian:

Suitcases belonging to Auschwitz victims still remain

One of the main objectives at the camp is to humanise the victims.

The people sent there were not just numbers or the belongings that we saw in the camp – they were real people, just like you and I.

It was heartbreaking to hear about what happened to these innocent people and then see the hundreds of names and faces that were shown in the museum, which was in fact only a tiny percentage of the final total murdered.

Also, it was important to humanise the perpetrators.

The Nazis who implemented the Holocaust were people too, they had families and friends and were not just psychopaths and killing machines.

Rudolf Höss, the commander of Auschwitz, had a house just outside the walls of the camp, where he returned each day after work to his wife and children.

How can human beings be so awful and do something like this? How could they return home at the end of the day to kiss their wives and children good night? I, for one, can never understand.

When it was dark, a Rabbi-led a ceremony took place, where we all attempted to gather our thoughts, and we then lit candles in order to commemorate and honour everyone who suffered and died, which was a touching end to an extremely emotionally draining day.

In the follow-up seminar, we reflected on our thoughts and feelings after the visit and started to think about our next steps projects.

Northwich Guardian:

Memorial placed on the train tracks inside Auschwitz Birkenau

I am now an ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust and it is my job to spread awareness of what happened during the horrific events of the Holocaust, and how we can avoid something like it ever happening again.

Therefore, I will be working hard during the next year and beyond and have planned various events in order to do this such as conducting an assembly at school and teaching lessons to the Year 9 history classes in January.

From our trip, I have learned that people have to observe history and learn from the mistakes of the past.

There is nothing we can now do for the innocent victims of the Holocaust, but what we can do is make sure that nothing else like this ever happens again.

But do we learn from history? What about the Rwanda genocide? Or the Bosnian genocide?Or even what is occurring today in Syria?

We must learn from the past in order to prevent the same mistakes that have already been made. It is my job to promote this message and I will do so to the best of my ability.

I am so thankful that I got participate going through the Lessons from Auschwitz Programme and want to thank everyone involved in the project for making it such a valuable experience.

It is one that I will never forget. I am looking forward to completing my Next Steps Project and making sure I can spread awareness of what happened during the worst genocide mankind has ever seen.

We are the last generation that will be able to listen to Holocaust survivors and therefore we must spread the messages and stories, no matter how horrific, to ensure nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.

“Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazi’s murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews, from various countries of Europe.” – Memorial in Auschwitz Birkenau.