IT WAS the location for one of the darkest periods in human history and claimed the lives of millions of Jewish people.

But for one Oxfordshire schoolgirl a trip to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, in Poland, will be especially poignant – because a number of her relatives disappeared during the Second World War.

Headington School pupil Katharine Davis, 17, is of Jewish descent and is one of two pupils from the Oxford school who will visit the camp next month.

The trip is being organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, which has received £1.5m from the Government to support its Lessons from Auschwitz Project, for teachers and sixth-formers.

Katharine said: “It’s going to be very poignant for me, because I come from a Jewish background and I know that a number of my relatives went missing during that time. I really don’t know what to expect of it. It will be a great opportunity to experience it with like-minded people.

“There’s the worry it has turned into a bit of a tourist destination, with people viewing it as a place to check off on a list. It should certainly not be viewed as that at all.”

Teenagers from d’Overbroeck’s College, Rye St Anthony, St Clare’s and Wychwood schools are also flying out to Poland on February 11, in a 200-strong party of pupils from 100 schools around the Thames Valley and Chilterns area.

Teacher Linda Gregory is organising the trip at Headington School.

She said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity for these young adults to discover the true horrors of Auschwitz.

“People who go on this trip really learn to understand what happened there.

“It’s one of the darkest periods in human history, and it’s vital people remember the suffering of the millions who died at the camp.”

Auschwitz was the largest of a number of concentration camps and death camps built in Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. From the spring of 1942 until the autumn of 1944, trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Europe.

About 1.1m people, about 90 per cent of whom were Jewish, are thought to have died at the camp, Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “This project is such a vital part of our work, because it gives students the chance to understand the dangers and potential effects of prejudice and racism today.”