This month, Salesian students from Farnborough, spent some time following the footsteps of Bl Józef Kowalski, one of the Salesians killed in Auschwitz

During their trip to Krakow during half term, 44 students from Salesian College Farnborough, visited the Salesian Parish of Saint Stanislaus & St John Bosco in Debniki, where St John Paul II had been a parishioner.

They were welcomed by Fr Zygmunt SDB and, as it was Ash Wednesday, he administered the ashes to the group.

It was from this parish that on 23 May 1941, that Fr Józef Kowalski (1911-1942) along with eleven Salesians were arrested and transported to Auschwitz. In May 1942, Fr Józef was killed after refusing to trample on his rosary. He was beatified in Warsaw in 1999 by Pope John Paul II.

The eleven Salesians, known as "The Salesian Martyrs" also died in Auschwitz. As earlier in the day, the group had been to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place of such inhumanity, and prayed outside Block 25 where Fr Józef had been imprisoned, this was particularly poignant.

The half-term trip also included visits to the Jewish Ghetto, Wawel Castle, Oskar Schindler's Factory, the Divine Mercy Shrine, Wadowice (the birthplace of Pope John Paul II) and the Wieliczka Salt Mine and was a truly memorable experience.