Members of trade union Unison in Salford want to launch an education programme which would see school pupils visit the Nazi death camps in a bid to boost tolerance and community relations.
Union members would also take part to increase education of the Holocaust among adults.
The scheme has the support of the Manchester Jewish Museum, in Cheetham Hill, which earlier this month launched a bid to become the National Tolerance Centre. Unison branch officer Matthew Egan said they were also hoping to get backing from Salford council.
It follows a government announcement, earlier this year, for similar plans to send two sixth formers from every school in England to Auschwitz.
The Salford scheme would be based on one in Sefton, Merseyside, in which about 50 people are sent on the trips each year. Organisers also hope to set up educational visits for schools, including talks from Holocaust survivors.
Mr Egan said: "I've visited some of the camps and as a society we should learn from what happened there.
"The positive effect that the visit has had on young people from Sefton has often been life changing, especially in how they see groups that have been victims of intolerance and persecution."
A steering group will be set up, with a cross section of people from the community.
Coun John Warmisham, Salford's lead member for children's services, supports the plans.
He said: "We've always been involved in the organised Holocaust Memorial Day and Salford has the second largest Jewish community outside London, so it would be entirely fitting to support this proposal."
Stuart Hilton, of the Jewish Museum, said: "I thought that it was a marvellous idea to build on previous models of success. As we hope to be the National Centre for Tolerance, I support any initiative that aims to educate against xenophobia and racism of all forms."
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Most people who've worked with me in their twenties and early thirties have no idea of the Holocaust.
This and other racial cleansing attrocities should be covered before kids hit secondary school, when there is still hope of stopping racism and xenophobia getting hold, i.e. before the parents ruin them.
Visiting Auschwitz should be optional.
Some people could be left scarred by a visit. Seeing the piles of shoes and empty zyklon b cannisters left a perminant image with me. To send every sixth form student would not be advisable. I know people should be aware of the horrors that happened and to help increase tolerance is important but not by frightening kids
whos gonna pay for all this????
Why not send them down the tin mines in cornwall or the welsh mines and see how many people died working for the rich and wealthy in britain and how children/women were enslaved to work seven days a week.We had a lot of dead people in victorian slave trades in britain (sweat shops and children up chimneys)That should give them nightmares..
Manchester's own Anthony Burgess suggested something like this forty-odd years ago in his book 'A Clockwork Orange'. Now that we actually have the Clockwork Orange generation,serious consideration should be given!
Dessie,
You can be dam sure it won't be Unison paying.
The government has already come up with a commendable scheme but then lied by implying that the government would fund it directly rather than asking schools and pupils to fund it.
Cornish Tin Mines - Waht a complete pillcok
This is a good idea. I was going to join the Army but at 14 went on a trip to Arromanche etc in Normandy and saw the war graves. This put me off the Army and violence in general and we should learn these young 'uns whilt we can.
Firstly, thanks Dessi for a fascinating insight. One can only commend you for your commitment to ensuring that all media reporting of proposed schemes includes a full budgetary breakdown.
On the subject of why not send children to visit tin mines instead - I'm at a bit of a loss to see why the decision to visit a tin mines or a concentration camp should be made on a mutually exclusive basis? Surely, visiting one does not preclude a visit to the other and in a scheme aimed at boosting tolerance and community relations, I'd say that on balance the holocaust scheme is probably the more appropriate one on this occasion.
For all,Please this is not about money..This is about wrong-doing,the persecution and murder of 6 million Jews..I implore those to just read the Anne Frank Diary..get it from the Library,buy it,whatever,just make the effort and read it.Then go to the Jewish Museum at the moment,they have a display of photos taken by Otto Frank,her father..
Go to Amsterdam,experience the hidden house,Otto only survived,learn about the fate of the others.But remember,thats only a handful of people who were murdered amongst 6 million...
Send as many 6th formers for me,I will gladly pay extra rates/tax.
A good idea. It's a pity they can't also visit the communist gulags where millions more were exterminated. unfortunately we dont have access to these places whilst communism is still alive and kicking
A very good idea, I saw that grim place a few years back, and it was a moving experience. Many in the tour party I was with shed a few tears at the utter barbarity of what happened there. My only concern is that young minds might not be able to take in the enormity of what really happened there, they may need to go back later when they themselves have families of their own to fully understand the pain and suffering that went on in there.
I must admit, when I saw the MEN's opening line to this story "Schoolchildren could be sent to Auschwitz", I thought a radical new debate on punishment was about to start.
Rob Green
It was meant as a comparison.that we have greedy people in britain through the ages that are responsible for millions of people loosing their lives by being forced down mines and sweatshops it dosnt just need to be in wartime for millions to loose their lives on the whim of a greedy few of madmen.Read about the true history of britain where most of our wealth was made by the few at the cost of a nation being forced into slave labour ..the unknown history of britain.women having babies down mines and children all to make the coal barons millions.We seem to hide our terrible past and see the rest through red tinted glasses.
Mark, Radcliffe. The Nazi regime and death camp victims were not just the 6 million jews. There is a long list of other victims who were killed and persecuted because of race,religion and politics. All the victims of the NAZI's are due the honour of memory and respect.
Maybe they should have access to Cabinet meetings in order to find out how to hand your country to foreigners and criminals on a plate!
diddarunner2spain. You are quite right, The Marxists are creating the same kind of hatered that happened in the 30s. and let's never forget that Stalin slaughtered HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS.Evil comes from the left as well as the right.
Diddarunna to Spain, do spanish kids get lessons about why Spain is full of Englsih people who refuse to speak Spanish or intergrate into Spanish society? And Ace why do you feel there is a need to compare English history with the holocaust? Do you have a problem with kids visiting the death camps and if so what is the problem you have?
"whos gonna pay for all this?"
hopefully you, you dimlo.
"We seem to hide our terrible past and see the rest through red tinted glasses"
Ace,
Hundreds if not thousands of lives were lost in mining accidents. The largest accident was 439 people in Wales. Tragic but it was they way of the world and to some extent still is. People work to feed their families, somebody makes a profit and occasionally accidents happen. Health and Safety Legislation has saved thousands of lives but I guess you would just see that as liberal interfernce.
Two million people were exterminated in less than four years at Auschwitz for nothing more than the accident of their birth.
If you think wanting to educate children about the murder of 11 million Jews, Poles, Slavs, Homosexuals, Roma, Socialists, Communists, Disabled People to stop them becoming bigots, is viewing the world through Red Tinted spectacles, then you are the living justification for a project like this. You only have to see what is going on in Darfur today to realise that lessons need to learnt
You may get your kicks from talking about shooting liberals, beating children, wanting a dictatorship etc. and you probably get a kick out of trying to change the subject matter here, but it just goes to show the type of person you are.
If people want to learn more, can I recommend contacting the Aegis Trust. James Smith is truly inspirational character who has experienced the atrocities in Darfur and Rwanda first hand. Its' slightly more of a learning experience than listing to Ace's bigoted ramblings on life.
To think that this type of atrocity against mankind is still being allowed to continue in the world today.
The repression in Palestine is particularly hard to understand as it is seemingly being perpertrated by the successors of the poor people who were so inhumanely treated in Auschwitz and similar camps.
It would appear that as human
beings we never learn.
Children should be educated about these outrages and those still being undertaken today in Zimbabwe,Darfur,
Iraq and elsewhere in the world.
Bullying is still rife against the weak.
Human nature is a bizarre condition.
absolutley ,let them be aware of what History and suffering by Humanity is ,, Then and only then, they may learn,,
Good idea,but then send them to the Ukraine,Rwanda,Siberia,China,South Africa,Poland,Palestine,sorry suppose these places dont count plus the all the other countries that have endured mass murder and genocide...just keep the fire burning for political and self interest reasons.Any one that would let there childeren participate in this,should be ashamed of their-selves.
Incidently three members of my close family died in WW2 and two suffered captivity in Burma...
Take them around Wythenshawe at night.It's enough to put the S---- up anyone!
mc spanner,
you cant touch that
take them to Terezin in Prague. Then to Auschwitz.