STUDENTS were moved to tears during an emotional tour of a Nazi German camp in occupied Poland.

Starvation cells, death walls and gas chambers were all visited as part of the RE curriculum at Priestlands School.

The group of 20 students and five staff members were shocked to be shown a room full of human hair cut from Jewish women after they had been gassed, another room full of pairs of glasses and others full of suitcases and artificial limbs.

They stayed in Krakow during the half term visit and visited Auschwitz and Birkenau camps to see for themselves the horrors endured during the second world war.

Pupils also got the chance to visit the Schindler museum and talk to a survivor of the Holocaust.

And they lit a candle at a memorial at Birkenau after walking the route taken by those destined for the gas chambers in freezing weather.

Head teacher Chris Willsher said: “It is impossible to describe the combination of shock, sadness, anger, disgust and fear they all felt.

“They were no longer talking or joking. The mood had changed.

“Trips such as these are important. For obvious reasons, there are increasingly limited opportunities for teenagers to meet and hear first-hand from Holocaust survivors.

“That experience, combined with the visits to Auschwitz and Birkenau, made this trip an especially powerful one. Our students responded with maturity and empathy and I was impressed with them all.”