YOU would have to remain quiet for two years to observe a minute’s silence for each of the 1.1 million people killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Globe senior reporter Emma Rigby accompanied teachers from Wirral to the Nazi concentration camps as part of a project aimed at giving them a fresh insight into the horror that occurred there, enhancing their teaching of the Holocaust and helping to make sure it never happens again.

Walking through the iron gates of Auschwitz I, I looked up and saw the infamous phrase “Arbeit macht frei”  - “Work will set you free”.

At that point, I knew that what I was about to see would be worse than I could have ever imagined because for those who were taken Auschwitz-Birkenau – made up of three separate main camps Auschwitz I, Birkenau and Monowitz and dozens of satellite camps – work certainly did not set them free.

In 1942, Auschwitz began to function as the centre of the mass destruction of European Jews – all of whom were marked for total extermination by the Nazis.

Wirral Globe:
The infamous iron gate of Auschwitz I. Photo by Emma Rigby.

The overall number of victims of Auschwitz during 1940 to 1945 is estimated to be at least 1.1 million people, including around one million Jews, 75,000 Poles, 21,000 Sinti and Roma and 15,000 Soviet Prisoners of War.

The majority of the mass transports of Jews who arrived at the camps were murdered in gas chambers.

They were ordinary people, like you and me, they had families, jobs, ambitions. They had possessions – suitcases, photographs, keys, clothing, shoes – a lot of which are now on display at Auschwitz.

The sight of children’s shoes and two tonnes of human hair proved too much for me. I sobbed. How on Earth did this happen?

As we made our way around Auschwitz I, we were taken into what remains of the crematorium. We stood where 70,000 people died.

At Birkenau, we walked to the ruins of the four gas chambers formerly sited there – destroyed by the Nazis in the hope of covering up their horrific acts.

For us, the walk was just part of the tour. But for the millions who were taken there between 1940 and 1945, they were their very last steps.

As they walked through the “gate of death”, some were selected to be “saved” and put to work.

Others, deemed too weak due to their gender or age, were sent straight to their deaths.

Close to 8,000 people could be killed within just a few minutes in Birkenau’s gas chambers.

Those who did not, died due to the inhumane conditions in which they were forced to live – if you can call it living.

Wirral Globe:
Personal items belonging to victims of the Holocaust. Photo by Emma Rigby.

They were starved and suffered with dysentery. They were allowed to use the toilet – a communal one at that – just twice a day.

We heard how rats had thrived on the insanitary conditions and would attack the prisoners who were just too weak to fight them off.

A lot of myths which I thought to be true were dispelled during the visit.

The first, as depicted in the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, that Auschwitz was in the middle of nowhere.

That, is in fact, not true. The village of Oświęcim is just a 10 minute drive from Auschwitz I.

Homes which existed before the construction of Birkenau are visible from the guard tower. And those living within several miles would have been able to see and smell the fumes from the crematoria.

The Holocaust was not carried out in secret. There were those who are known as “bystanders” who did exactly that.

Wirral Globe:
People light candles and leave them on the railway tracks of Birkenau as part of a memorial service. Photo by Emma Rigby.

During a moving memorial service at Birkenau, Rabbi Barry Marcus told us he is often asked the same questions during such visits.

One – how was this possible? But he said the reason question that should be asked is ‘How was this humanly possible?”

The most poignant and hard-hitting is the question of “Where is God?” – a question which Rabbi Marcus said should be “Where was man?”

Some may believe the camps should be destroyed, consigned to the history books.

But as Rabbi Marcus said, the past is in the past, the mistakes have been made. And though the Holocaust may have long since passed and Auschwitz-Birkenau liberated more than 70 years ago, the anti-Semitic ideology remains.

Wirral Globe:
An exhibition featuring hundreds of photographs of those whose lives were destroyed by the Holocaust. Photo by Emma Rigby.

Just recently, the Jewish cemetery in Oświęcim was vandalised with swastikas graffitied onto the headstones.

We must never forget what happened at Auschwitz. Never.

The world can be a terribly cruel place and we must do everything within our power to educate future generations so that such barbaric acts never happen again.

Wirral Globe:
Signs like this are scattered across Auschwitz. Photo by Emma Rigby.