STUDENTS have returned from a moving trip to Krakow in Poland.

A total of 40 Year 11 students from Prince Henry’s Grammar School, Otley, gained a closer understanding of what it was like to be Jewish during the Second World War during a history trip to examine the Nazi Occupation of Krakow.

The Otley students visited the Schindler’s Factory Museum and the Galicia Museum, which included a talk with a grandson of a camp survivor. They also spent time visiting the camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 1,100,000 men, women and children lost their lives.

“Going to Auschwitz was very a powerful and humbling experience.” said Cameron Lord, Year 11.

“Students study events such as the holocaust as part of their History GCSE, but it is hard sometimes to imagine the reality inside a classroom," said Georgina Anson, trip leader and International Co-Ordinator at Prince Henry’s.

" A school trip can really show the students the impact of an event which they may only have read about or seen in old newsreels or in films. This trip was an invaluable and moving experience for both students and staff. When the students met the grandson of a camp survivor who had entered the camp at 16 years old, they were visibly moved. ”