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Study tour group visits Auschwitz, site of World War II genocide

by Uzaemonnaotsuka Tokai, Staff Writer

OSWIECIM, POLAND—On the study tour to Europe sponsored by the Hiroshima Peace Creation Fund (chaired by Yoshinori Okatani, president of the Chugoku Shimbun), eight university and high school students from the Hiroshima area visited the former site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and began learning about the Holocaust, the genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany.

They visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum located at the former site of the camp and were guided by Takeshi Nakatani, 49, the museum’s only official Japanese guide. With somber looks on their faces, the students took notes while listening to Mr. Nakatani’s explanations about the many personal effects of the victims, including hair shorn from their heads, piles of shoes and bags, and artificial legs. These belongings offered the group vivid images of the tragedy that unfolded here.

They also entered the gas chambers where as many as 600 people were squeezed inside at a time. The Nazis are said to have extracted gold teeth from the mouths of victims and removed rings from their fingers for the purpose of making gold ingots. They also used their remains for fertilizer after they were killed. Mr. Nakatani said, “A ruthless head Nazi would have been an ordinary person at home, playing with his children. If put in the same situation, any human being has the potential to do the same things that the Nazis did.” He appealed to the students to reflect seriously on the cruelty of war.

Arata Kono, 17, a second-year student from Hiroshima Prefectural High School and a junior writer for the Chugoku Shimbun said, “I got shivers when I imagined the terror of being sent to a gas chamber. We have to continue thinking about the Holocaust to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated.”

(Originally published on March 24, 2015)

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