Since 1995, a group of teachers and historians has taken secondary school pupils to visit the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps in Poland. Formed as a non-profit association in 2013, this “Train de la mémoire” (« Train of Memory ») aims to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive among participants while encouraging them to reflect on their responsibilities within society.

This multi-day trip is offered every two years to 400 pupils in their penultimate and final years of secondary school, and to 100 adults, from 12 to 14 schools or chaplaincies. It is prepared over several months through reading, visits, testimonies and talks. The train was chosen as the mode of transport by the organisers, not to imitate what the deportees experienced, but to make use of the length of the journey to get young participants thinking about the experience they are about to have and about what the Holocaust represents. Round tables, discussions and activities keep them engaged during the journey and continue during their stay in Poland and their visit to the camp memorials. On their return, the pupils draw up an account of this unprecedented experience and share it on the association’s website.

SNCF is a partner of this initiative.