Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Crispin Blunt visits Aushwitz

Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, spent Tuesday 10th November to Auschwitz-Birkenau organised by the Holocaust Education Trust for 240 sixth-formers from schools in the South East. He joined pupils from Reigate College, Royal Alexandra and Albert School and Dunnottar School who each sent two students on the visit. Commenting afterwards Crispin Blunt said:

"The weather, which was cold, wet and foggy, was as bleak as the place. This is the site of the largest crime scene in human history. It is thought that around 1.2 million people, the majority of them Jews but including gypsies, political prisoners and homosexuals, met their end in Auschwitz. For those who were not immediately exterminated on arrival conditions were as close to a living hell as is imaginable with most prisoners surviving fewer than six months in simply appalling conditions.

"Although I was familiar with the history, the shocking bleakness of this miserable place reinforces that knowledge acquired from films and books. It is the greatest symbol for why any intolerance of difference should be completely unacceptable.

"I pay tribute to all the organisers of the visit and those who took part. The weather conditions on a visit spent largely outside were truly depressing yet the attention of the students never wavered and I know that like me this awful example of man’s inhumanity to man will be seared into their memory for the rest of their lives."