SHEBBEAR College started 2016 with a five-day cultural experience for 30 fifth and sixth form pupils.

They enjoyed an enriching history and cultural trip to Krakow, Poland, which included tours around the beautiful city of Krakow and its Jewish heritage, Oskar Schindler’s factory, Auschwitz extermination camps, the Jagiellonian University, Wawel Royal Castle and state chambers, Nowa Huta and Wieliczka Salt Mines. The trip also included a moving meeting with a Holocaust survivor.

On the first day they visited the Krakow Main Square, vibrant with street performers and activities, then on to the Jewish Quarter where much of Schindler’s List was filmed. They visited the oldest synagogue in Poland where all the men had to wear a head covering, and the Krakow Wailing Wall before heading to Schindler’s factory for a detailed museum visit.

The tours around both camps at Auschwitz were very moving, uncovering the true enormity of the crime. Perhaps the most challenging part for the pupils was confronting 2,000kg of human hair — from around 30,000 women — shaved off after their murder.

The most poignant moment was being able to observe a one-minute silence for all the victims on behalf of Shebbear College. This took place at the memorial between the two gas chambers at the end of the railway track in Birkenau.

Twin pupils ended the silence by placing red roses and candles on the memorial, just a short distance from where millions died and where Dr Mengele performed his horrific experiments on twins. All the pupils without exception conducted themselves with dignity and the utmost respect during the four-hour visit.

The evening found them heading off to the impressive Galaria Krakowska shopping centre for dinner and retail therapy, with four floors of fashion, food and just about everything else.

Next, the group visited the Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364, where they had a guided tour of the museum and university rooms, including the study room of philosopher Nicolaus Copernicus with his scientific equipment still in place, and the lecture room where the future Pope John Paul II once studied.

At the Galacia Jewish Museum, in a private conference room, they met Holocaust survivor Monika Goldwasser. The room was silent as, through an interpreter, she told her heart-breaking story about how her parents were executed by the Nazis, and how she survived in a Krakow orphanage protected by nuns until she was adopted by a Polish couple. There were tears as the students listened.

A poem written by Monika’s father was read aloud; then the pupils asked her searching questions. Monika expounded the importance of love and left them with a thought-provoking message: “You are young and your whole life is ahead of you and you will have many decisions to make — remember, your decisions will reflect upon other people.”

A three-course meal at the Morskie Oko Restaurant was accompanied by Polish mountain folk music. Traditional dancers soon had everyone up on the floor for some energetic dancing.

The next excursion was to Nowa Huta, a ‘Communist Paradise’ designed and built, post-war, to Stalin’s communist ideology. Huge buildings inspired by Leonardo DaVinci and in Baroque-style housed workers from the Lenin Steelworks. The students learned about the Cold War, Lech Walesa, Solidarity and the fall of communism.

Stalin’s ideology allowed no churches to be built in Nowa Huta, but the Polish workers, deeply religious, fought to build a church of their own, one of their first victories. The pupils visited the vast, impressive church and went inside to find thousands attending mass on the first day of Lent.

As a surprise, all the pupils took a tour of Krakow in a convoy of six carriages, each pulled by two horses. After this excitement they went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines where they saw beautiful statues and wall carvings the miners have created over the centuries. Most stunning was a huge chapel carved and decorated completely out of salt. They stepped out of the salt mines to find everything white and a heavy flurry of snow led to great excitement and a fairly vigorous snowball fight.

Staff and pupils on the trip experienced a ‘roller-coaster’ of emotions during the five days. The excellent behaviour and respect shown by all the pupils in some challenging situations is a credit to their parents and to the college.