Schools Minister Jim Knight highlighted the impact of a visit to Auschwitz when he addressed a Holocaust Educational Trust meeting on Tuesday at the Imperial War Museum.

Addressing sixth-formers who had participated in the HET’s government-backed Lessons from Auschwitz programme, Mr Knight said his own trip “was an experience I couldn’t have gotten from any film, any book, any website. Being there and seeing things is something that is irreplaceable.”

Over 3,000 pupils took part in the programme last year. One of its graduates, Ifaah Samatar from Skinners’ Company’s Girls’ School in Hackney, said that visiting Auschwitz had “made me realise we are blind to the tragedies happening right in front of us”.