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The Holocaust was the Nazis' assault on the Jews between 1933 and 1945 and culminated in the so-called 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe', in which six million Jews were murdered.

A tough lesson [photo by Yakir Zur]

It was a programme of extermination conducted at concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland where one million Jews were exterminated along with 100,000 Poles, Gypsies, Soviet PoWs, homosexuals, disabled people and dissidents.

In September 2008, more than a hundred sixth formers, many from Greater Manchester, visited Auschwitz to see for themselves the horrors of the Holocaust on a trip to the camp organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

BBC Radio Manchester joined two students from Loreto college in Hulme, Bradley Jamieson and Sana Cheema, as they toured the Auschwitz Museum to see the vast piles of hair, shoes and glasses left behind by the victims.

Then they moved on to see the notorious killing camp Auschwitz-Birkenau where the mass transport, processing and gassing of Jewish people was carried out an industrial scale.

Sana and Bradley [photo by Yakir Zur]

Sana Cheema:

We’ve just lit some candles and left them on the railway track. I think what I’m going to take home with me from this whole experience is the things that I didn’t know about before like the processing of the people before they were killed. And I’d just like to spread that knowledge that I’ve gained today.”

Bradley Jamieson:

“I think it’s been a really interesting yet, at the same time, hard experience. One of the things that I’ve helped to gain an idea of is just the magnitude and scale of all this. Actually coming to the camps and seeing it, you realise just how big this was and how many people were affected by it. It’s been really, really tough but I’m really glad I came.”

Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust:

"HET's Lessons from Auschwitz Project is such a vital part of our work because it gives students the chance to understand the dangers and potential effects of prejudice and racism today.

"The Project encourages them to act on what they see and learn, and the inspiring work they go on to do in their local areas demonstrates the importance of the visit."