Leeds: School pupils to receive online tours of Auschwitz

Pupils will be able to ask questions of guides on the virtual tour of the concentration camp

School pupils in Leeds are to be among the first in the UK to experience a virtual guided tour of the former Auschwitz death camp.

The online tours are being organised by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

All 44 secondary schools in the city are being given the opportunity to take part, with tours aimed at 14 to 15-year-olds.

Leeds City Council said it would help children further their understanding of genocide.

In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1m people at Auschwitz.

The "Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes" tour will allow students to spend up to two hours virtually touring the former Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II -Birkenau sites, to learn about the history of the complex and its impact.

Many of the existing ex-prisoner accommodation blocks are now small museums at Auschwitz

Organisers said participants would be able to pose questions directly to their guides "in real-time", and multimedia content would be used to help illustrate answers, "including testimony from Holocaust survivors".

The tours are in line with the year nine and 10 curriculum, but it would be left to individual schools to govern student suitability and the number of attendees, officials said.

Leeds City Council's deputy leader Jonathan Pryor said: "Leeds is a city built on tolerance, understanding, and learning.

"As a society, we must never forget the horrific actions that humans are capable of to ensure that this is never repeated."

He said he was "proud" young people in Leeds would be some of the first to participate in the online tour.

Mr Pryor said it would be an "incredible opportunity" to further their understanding of genocide.

He added that schools would be able to book their places on the tour from 19 February.