A VISIT to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz will provide a haunting reminder of the Holocaust for students from across the region.

The sixth-form students, from colleges and schools in the North-East, will visit the concentration camp in Poland to see the site of the largest mass murder ever recorded.

It was there that more than a million men, women and children C mostly Jews C were executed during the Second World War.

The one-day trip, organised by the Government-backed Holocaust Educational Trust, is running for the first time from the region after a successful trial in London.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown provided funding for the visits by groups across the country.

Kay Andrews, head of education at the trust, said: These trips are built on the premise that seeing something for yourself is a very much different experience to reading about it or seeing it on the television.

We are trying to ensure people learn the lessons from the Holocaust, this trip, and follow-up work in their schools. On a very basic level, this will challenge racism in the school yard, name calling and bullying as well as building politically awareness.

Its about challenging what they read in the media, and making them active citizens. It has a knock-on effect on a lot of the students who take part.

The students took part in a preparatory seminar last week and got the chance to put questions to a Auschwitz survivor, who relayed his experiences.

The students will fly out to Poland tomorrow to tour the concentration camp before taking part in a memorial service. Gary Darby, head of history at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, in Darlington, said the experience would be one the students would never forget.

He added: It will be a memorable and moving experience and we are going to ask those students taking part to share their experience with others at the college.

Its fantastic for them, but also for others at the college who will learn from the students taking part. In fact, it has already had an impact on them.

ö The Northern Echo will be accompanying the students on the visit. Read a full account of the experience in Thursdays newspaper.