Orientation Seminar-My Expectations

On the 26th April, we both attended the orientation seminar at the Jury's Inn hotel in Birmingham in which we heard about the context of the holocaust and the pre war Jewish life. The day was split up into two different sections, with the first half of the day focusing on the context of the Holocaust, and hearing from a Holocaust survivor, Susan Pollack. The second half of the day consisted of group discussions before we visited Auschwitz.  

When we arrived in the conference room, we were presented with little cards with the words, 'My Expectations' written on the front, with  three sentences written on the other side: 'Something I know about Auschwitz' 'What I imagine Auschwitz is like' and 'Something I hope to learn from the LFA course'. The sentence regarding what I imagine Auschwitz is like was something I found quite challenging, even though it is just a simple sentence. The part I found most difficult was picturing what a place of mass murder would be like, where 1.1 million innocent people spent the last moments of their lives, whether it was days or just a few hours. I found it so difficult to comprehend how this would feel to stand in the same place where people took their last steps, their last breath, particularly as it is such a significant place.  

Our responses to the questions are listed below. They were both very similar answers, so we have opted to post one set of responses rather than two.  

Something I know about Auschwitz 

'I know that at least 1.1 million people died in the concentration camps at Auschwitz, which was one of the most well known and largest concentration camps This year marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp' 

What I imagine Auschwitz to be like 

'I imagine Auschwitz to be eerie and silent, but I also think it will be an overwhelming experience with a lot to learn.' 

What I hope to learn from the LFA course 

'I hope to learn about the Holocaust in a greater depth, and I also hope to learn about the individual experiences that people had of the Holocaust, as well as their lives before the Holocaust.' 

This day was very insightful and interesting, therefore, it will be posted in segments rather than a whole blog post, so in the next few days we will write posts about the group discussions and the testimony from Susan Pollack.  

Heather and Anna