Kyiv Medical University students visited the memorial complex Auschwitz-Birkenau

On March 14, an international group of 23 students from Kyiv Medical University visited the memorial complex Auschwitz-Birkenau — one of the largest death camps in occupied Europe during the The Holocaust.
Between 1940 and 1945, more than 1.3 million people passed through the camp, and about 1.1 million were murdered. Among the victims were Jews, Poles, Roma, prisoners of war, and people of many other nationalities. The silence of this place, the preserved barracks, barbed wire, and watchtowers create a powerful sense of immersion in history.

The most profound impression on the students came from the exhibitions of the victims’ personal belongings: piles of shoes, suitcases marked with names, children’s items, crutches, and prostheses. Especially moving is the room where tons of human hair lie behind glass — a silent testimony to systematic cruelty and inhuman humiliation. Looking at these objects, the students realized that behind every pair of shoes and every suitcase there was a human life that had been brutally cut short.

For future doctors who have chosen the path of serving life, visiting such a place carries special meaning. The students left the memorial with deep reflections, understanding that memory itself is a form of responsibility to history and to the future.