Holocaust Memorial Day is upon us, and many events will be taking place across the North East to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in 1945.
Somebody who has seen Auschwitz first hand after she visited alongside seven other teenagers with a youth group in 2010, is 29-year-old Leanne Miah. Together, the teens created a book to chronicle their experiences at the camp, in which they talked about their emotions at the time and what they learnt from the visit.
Leanne spoke about her experiences at an event held at Denton Burn Library on Thursday evening. She talked about how the trip came to be and the impact that it had on her.
"My group of friends at that time would come to the youth group here at the library, and we had already been on a few trips to places like Scotland. Our youth worker had seen that the anniversary of the Holocaust was coming up, and they felt like it would be a great learning experience for us, and it was all funded by them.
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"We were also able to create this book project when we were there which was really helpful. The adults on the trip would ask us what we thought of what we were seeing and how we felt, and this filled the book with our quotes.
"Seeing somewhere like Auschwitz in person really made it feel real, and I think it's so important for kids nowadays to go on trips that enhance their learning and their knowledge of history.
"This type of a trip is something that stays with you for life, it really changed my way of thinking. I am a lot more aware of discrimination now and I will challenge it in a way that I didn't used to be able to", she said.
The event at Denton Burn Library was organised by the councillor for the Benwell and Scotswood ward Rob Higgins, who wanted to bring the people who went on the trip back together after hearing about the story.
He said: "It has been great to see people coming to the library this evening, eager to gain a better understanding of the Holocaust and the surrounding events. I also want to say a massive thank you to Leanne for coming to talk about her experiences on her visit to Auschwitz.
"It is so important to mark these historic events as a community, as they are the types of positive things that people can do together. It is also vital to encourage more young people to confront history in this way, just as Leanne was able to do first hand when she was a teenager.
"This time next year I am hoping to get all eight of the young people back in the same room to reunite them and to get all of their thoughts on their trip and how it impacted them. Hopefully that is something that we can make happen as I think it will be great for all involved."
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