Should you take your children to visit Auschwitz?

Is the Auschwitz museum suitable for children? I pondered that question on a visit accompanied by a plane load of secondary school teachers, organised by The Holocaust Educational Trust. The Holocaust was first included on the UK’s National Curriculum in 1991 and the Trust charters aeroplanes for a professional development course for UK teachers, taking them to Auschwitz and back within a day. It aims to increase their understanding of the atrocity so that they can teach it more effectively. 

That it’s possible to fly from London to Krakow in Poland and back with budget carriers and then take a cheap bus ride or short rental car drive to Auschwitz all within 24 hours makes the idea of visiting compelling, and affordable for British families. The closest many of us get to visualising the horrors of the Holocaust is through film, from Schindlers’ List to JoJo Rabbit. And whilst cinema plays an important role in recreating events, it can also lend them an air of fiction and detach us from their reality.