Are Year 10 students too young to visit Auschwitz?

END OF YEAR 10 Israel trips have become a rite of passage for Australian Jewish day school students. Their purpose is to strengthen young people’s Jewish identity and connection to Israel. Since 2011, some Sydney and Melbourne day schools have included visits to former concentration camps in Poland or the Czech Republic as part of their students’ Israel trips.

While most of those side visits have been on hold since 2020 (due to Covid, political strife and most recently, the war in Gaza), Moriah College's Year 10 Israel program includes a trip to Auschwitz, and Mount Scopus's program includes a trip to Theresienstadt. But are 15- and 16-year-olds equipped to deal with the emotional impact of visiting Holocaust sites?

The Jewish Independent is not suggesting that substantial numbers of students have been traumatised by visits to Holocaust sites. However, these visits are a compulsory part of the Israel trips – if a student wants to go to Israel, they must also visit whichever camp is included in their school’s program. Yet academics and health professionals agree there has been little formal research on the impact of visiting the camps.

Australian high school students first began group visits to Holocaust sites through the International March of the Living (MOTL) program, which was founded in Israel. MOTL began in 1988 as a two-week educational program for teens and takes place annually.