Auschwitz Experience: On whose behalf do I want to live?
For the last few years we have been offering the Auschwitz Experience as a Pastoral proposal of Jesuïtes Educació to the students of the first year of upper secondary school and Professional Studies.
This year, 25 students from the first year of upper secondary school took part in this experience, accompanied by a tutor from Sant Ignasi, together with other students from Jesuïtes Educació schools, and also 27 students from the Professional Studies courses in Filmmaking, Lighting, Social Integration, 3D Animation, Teaching and Social and Sports Animation, Dietetics and Marketing and Advertising, accompanied by 2 teachers.
The experience begins with advance preparation, during the days of the visit to Auschwitz and a subsequent meeting to bring everything we have experienced to a close. The advance preparation enables the participating pupils from the different Jesuïtes Educació schools to get to know each other and to begin to question and study how the Holocaust came to be. Parents are also invited to this event in order to inform them and involve them in the experience.
Some of the scheduled activities during the stay in Poland include a visit to the Auschwitz extermination camp, sharing the testimony of survivors, a visit to the Jewish quarter of Krakow, and personal and spiritual deepening dynamics around this reality.
This is a pastoral proposal that is part of the framework of the evangelising mission that we undertake as schools of the Society of Jesus. For this reason, there are moments of personal reflection, group sharing, prayer, celebration of the Eucharist and words about what God says in the face of so much barbarity.
Like in other experiences of meaning, the personal experience and the accompaniment of this experience is hugely important to help young people to absorb it and to discover the fruits that it can bear. We want the impact of the experience to lead them from desolation to consolation, from observation and impact to personal commitment to the injustices we are witnessing today, whether they are far away or close to our country.
This is not just any trip or activity but a personal experience that asks students how to place themselves in the world by asking the question "On whose behalf do I want to live?"
