Student Joanna May Sutton-Klein spent 10 days volunteering in the migrant camp in Calais known as "the Jungle".
Ms Sutton-Klein, 21, who is president of her Sheffield University JSoc, gave up her summer holiday to teach in a makeshift school.
She said: "I saw what was happening on the news and I couldn't escape the idea that this was us, 80 years ago. I felt I had a duty as a Jewish person."
She said: "The camps are awful, they are places no people should be living in in 2015. They are forced together in these horrible conditions, they arrived with nothing but the clothes they are wearing and maybe a bag. Their lives are so desperate and yet the sense of community in the camps is inspiring."