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Gordon Brown on emotional trip to Auschwitz

The Prime Minister has wanted to visit the infamous Nazi death camp, where an estimated 1.5 million people died, for some time, having taken an interest in the Holocaust since childhood. A clergyman's son, his father was involved with a church group which supported the foundation of the state of Israel.

The combined camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau saw the biggest loss of life in the Second World War, with hundreds of thousands of prisoners, the majority Jewish, killed in gas chambers between 1940 and 1945.

In 2005, as Chancellor, Mr Brown announced funding for two pupils a year from every school in the country to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

So far, 7,000 pupils and teachers have visited the camp.

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)