People in Salisbury gathered at the war memorial before a candlelit procession to the Cathedral. DA4811P2THE painful lessons to be learnt from the Holocaust are being brought to life by two history students.

Liz Gorham and Katrina Black, of the Burgate School in Fordingbridge, were selected as ambassadors for the Holocaust Educational Trust and have been talking to schoolchildren as part of an initiative to raise awareness of persecution and suffering across the world.

The 17-year-olds joined young people from across the country at two seminars in London to discuss the causes and consequences of the Holocaust, and visited Auschwitz in Poland to see the concentration camp for themselves.

"It was very moving and emotional," said Liz, from Salisbury. "At first, I just felt numb. It was a strange, quiet place, with no birdsong.

"We held a candlelight procession and I felt as if I had paid my respects."

The girls are now running a series of projects and have set up a fundraising scheme to help families in Rwanda who experienced the horrors of genocide in the last decade.

"It's called 'The Holocaust to Rwanda - lessons learnt and lessons still to learn'," said Liz. "We have been taking assemblies in schools and set up an exhibition in our school library. Everyone learns a little bit about it at school but we can expand on some of the themes and relate it to students' own experiences with things like bullying.

"It's very important that we don't forget what happened and it's very interesting to get the chance to learn more about it."