Kirsten:

Well, I knew visiting Auschwitz was going to be one of the hardest (if not the hardest thing) I have ever or will ever experience. Prior to having the opportunity to go on this trip (that would conclude with visiting Auschwitz), I honestly had no desire to visit it or any other concentration camp because of what occurred in them. There are very few other places that have the history Auschwitz and the other camps have. I just couldn’t imagine being in the same place where millions of people were murdered and experienced indescribable brutality.

However, I have always been interested in the Holocaust and World War II and this was an opportunity to learn about it in the place where it occurred and to go beyond the text books and documentaries. When it came to visiting Auschwitz, I felt as though it would not only be a humbling experience but it would be the best way to remember and honor those who were the victims of the Holocaust. It was obviously very tough to be there. It was an honor and privilege to be there with Frank and Lane and to be able to pray with them for the family members they lost.

This was by far the most rewarding academic experience I have ever had. I got to know a lot of awesome people and we experienced a lot together over the past nine days. We worked hard together, learned together, experienced Wrocław, Krakow and Auschwitz together and got really close. I’m glad I was able to be able to be included in this and it is definitely something I hope I can participate in again.

To Dan, Dr. M., Drew, Frank, Lane, Matt, the alumni group and the rest of the students on this trip: It was great to be able to share this experience with all of you. The cemetery work was enjoyable because of the bonds we were forming while working. Seeing everyone working so hard motivated me to work harder. We had great times together over the past nine days and thank you so much for the memories I will forever cherish. I had a great time getting to know all of you and I’m sorry it took me so long to learn all of your names. We’ll have a reunion at school in the fall. Have a great summer and stay in touch!!

Eve:

As I sit here on the plane back to Michigan, I am asked to share my experiences in Poland over these past nine days and all I can think is, where do I start?

It has truly been one of the most emotional trips I’ve ever taken. Words became truths, facts became realities, and my views on humanity and justice have been put to the test.

Our time in Wroclaw was spent working to restore an overgrown and neglected Jewish cemetery. Our first day there I felt like that was all that we were there to do: clean out a cemetery. I even thought to myself, “How much can we really do in five days of work?” This question was answered through the responses we received from the public. Numerous times throughout the trip while we were out in the town we were asked for the reason a bunch of Americans were in Poland. After explaining the purpose of the trip people were impressed and moved that a bunch of college students would fly half way around the world to do something incredible. It was at those moments that I felt a real connection to what we were doing. We were there to undo what Hitler wanted to ultimately achieve: erase everything Jewish, including the memory of those we were lost. I remember thinking that a cemetery was meant to be a place of honor where memories would be kept, but looking at this literal forest we were working in made me wonder how this place could be that for anyone. By restoring just the small patch of cemetery we had meant that those people could be honored in the way they always should have been.

After our work in Wroclaw, we moved on to the beautiful city of Krakow. Our time in Krakow introduced us to the true Polish way of life. With the help of Matt (our translator, and basically personal tour guide) we were exposed to a new and exciting way of life.

Sunday we went to Auschwitz. It’s hard to adequately sum up the emotional aspect of the experience, but it was definitely the hardest part of the trip. It was an honor to share the experience with the entire group, especially Frank and Lane. Their emotions while we said prayers for their family members who were lost were uncontainable and as each student and staff member took turns reading the words of the prayer, my emotions became irrepressible as well.

Poland changed my outlook on the world. The devastation that the Holocaust brought is and always has been unbelievable to me, but to be in Poland and to be in the presence of where it all took place was surreal, emotional, and in a way indescribable. What really drove the trip home for me was knowing that even in the midst of all the horrors and devastation this world has seen, 23 of us found enough compassion to travel to the other side of the world to take steps towards the direction of change.

I met people I wouldn’t have met otherwise by being a part of this trip and I am grateful for the friendships with not only the other students, but with the staff members and members of the alumni group that were forged. I am also grateful to have been given this opportunity to make this world a little bit better.

Frank:

My involvement in the HSSLP program has been a remarkable experience from the start. As a new member of the Albion community, participating in the planning and the program has given me an opportunity to get to know members of the faculty and staff with whom I have little contact on a regular basis. Thinking about the course and my part in it helped me better to articulate my understanding of the experience of survivors and hopefully communicate this experience to our students.

This is the first time I traveled to Poland. It has been a difficult trip for me. However, the energy and openness of those I traveled with was wonderful. The section of the cemetery they gave us to work on was large and resembled a forest rather than a graveyard. While clearing brush, Kris found a stone path, covered in a few inches of dirt, roots and ivy. Everyone dug in and by the time we finished, the path was once again free to walk on. While digging, the students also uncovered the marble tombstone of “Max” as he became affectionately known.  By Friday, we cleared and restored a large area, righted stones, and visited other overgrown parts of the cemetery that have long been forgotten.

The section of the cemetery next to the area we worked in was full of children’s graves. All of the stones were of “geliebte Kinder” who had died possibly during the influenza epidemic after WWI. Reading their names and the inscriptions was moving as I thought about the families who were no longer here to remember their lost children. Watching everyone move through this part of cemetery, stop to read an inscription, clean off a stone or pick up a broken bottle from the grave was moving.

In Crakow, a group of us attended a Saturday Shabbat service in Synagogue Remu in Crakow. The congregation is very small and it is the only synagogue in use in Crakow today. However, listening to the chanting of the prayers with the same melodies that were in use for centuries was heartening.

Auschwitz was very difficult. The contrast from a cemetery with graves that had the possibility to be restored and the vast fields of Birkenau with no graves for so many killed was stark. Standing on the place of embarkation from the trains, a place of so much pain and fear was most difficult. As some of the students mentioned, my parents were survivors and many members of the family died there. At the site of the crematoria, I wanted to stop and say a prayer to commemorate their memory. Lane and I were deeply moved and touched by the support that everyone offered when they joined us. We stood in a circle and shared the readings and perhaps brought a little peace to that terrible place. I know their support brought some peace to me.

In the evening after visiting Auschwitz, many of us attended Mass at one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. I think all of us, whether Catholic or not, found the sounds of the organ and the chanting of the prayers soothing.

So, I think that the course and trip were successful for everyone who participated. I think that we all have an appreciation of that place and time that goes beyond what cold be learned in the classroom and embodies the meaning of “service learning.” I know that I will remember the trip and those who participated with great affection.

Lane:

When my husband, Frank, the Director of Counseling at Albion, asked me if I would like to come on this trip, I thought of the experience in terms of accompanying him, seeing a new country together, and also seeing places which have been profoundly tragic in his family’s history.  As we prepared to come on the trip, I continued to relate to the experience only through my role as a staff member’s wife.  What a surprise!  The trip turned out to have profound meaning for me in terms of all the other people, faculty and students, I’ve worked with and lived with and gotten to know.  I think I dragged myself out of bed the first morning so as not to disappoint my spouse, because I love him, and so as not to disappoint Chaplain Dan, well, because I think that to know Dan is to wish to fulfill one’s better self, to wish not to disappoint such evident ideals.  But the second morning I got up because I wanted to be at the cemetery working with everyone: the incredibly caring students and the teachers who have nurtured them.

Working that first morning I couldn’t help but think about the terrible events which brought us to that place.  I thought, as I often do, about the destructiveness created by a sense of “otherness.”  I must admit, I thought first about the problem “Other People” seem to have with a need for power and hierarchy and exclusion.  I was even ready to comfort myself were I to feel left out of some things on the trip – were I to feel otherness as a non-student, non-staff, non-faculty member. (Sigmund Freud, or your own Dr. Kelemen, would have immediately wondered, as the rain picked up and the temperature dropped, did I perhaps HOPE for some exclusion from this hard working group?)  By the end of that first cold wet day, I was marveling to anyone who would listen. “What wonderful students. They work so hard. They never complain. And they are so supportive of each other.”

I was collecting little stories and remembrances early in the week. But by the end there were too many to enumerate and too many I missed.  They included the student who moved in to catch something I was dropping, the several students who offered to stay and work so I could take a break or have lunch, the students who gave me or found me a seat on the tram each day, the students who always volunteered for the harder and less glorious jobs. Somehow I was even more touched to see the students step in and protect each other, to quickly phrase any response to my questions in the most inclusive ways, to make sure everyone had someone to go to meals with and to laugh with and work with.

Every conversation seemed to lead me to question my own diligence in putting into practice the ideals Frank and I hold.  The second night, Dr. McWhirter talked a little about her course, about the concept of “active goodness” and shared an article with me that she had written about the last trip to Poland and my perspective about our reasons to be there shifted and deepened. I talked with Dr. Dunham about his happiness to extend his home to foreign exchange students and to spend some of his vacation time on community service trips. I came back to the hostel wondering in what ways Frank and I could extend our home and care to more young adults even with our own grown. Chaplain Dan seemed able to think with two perspectives, every minute: what do the students need to be safe and nurtured and what are the students ready to confront about “active goodness,” and individual responsibility?

I’ve never seen a generation so capable of putting ideals to work as the current batch of students. Working closely with this class I saw constant examples of kindness many examples towards Frank and I, many towards each other.  Can I call them Generation W – Generation World? I also heard about their aspirations and career hopes and current projects and I was amazed by the commitment to active participation in bettering their own community and larger world.

This last point was key for me. Many students truly experience our entire world as their community.  I began the week wondering about the ways we exclude and enforce otherness. The students, however, mostly came to Poland looking for and finding ways to connect and include and extend the community.  While the course covered the events of the Holocaust and the students were interested in learning about the Jewish experience in Europe, I hope it wasn’t about the Jewish or Catholic or German or Polish experiences. I hope it was more about the human experience and our ability to choose or allow or oppose cruelty and dehumanization.  I came home convinced that the antidote to destructive “otherness” is extended community. I was grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this community.

We had a wonderful dinner with the students at a traditional Polish restaurant last night. Alumni and friends sat opposite students along long wooden tables and shared experiences and fun. We found out about each other as we tried and shared traditional Polish food. Matt, one of the students who graduated this year, is bilingual and knows about all things Polish due to his family background. He helped everyone choose appetizers, drinks, soups, and main courses. No fear of swine flu here—all shared everything but the drinks! What a fun time.

Today was another somber, yet hopeful day as we visited Ozarow where Miriam was separated from her family forever. We visited the cemetery where those good-byes would forever change lives. Miriam survived as a hidden child, but the rest of her family did not. Even though this visit in itself was intense, incredibly, our tour guide managed to find an 82-year-old Polish man in this town who had survived the Holocaust to come and talk to us at the cemetery. He told of some of the incredible things he had seen and lived through as a small boy during the German occupation of this town. Most of the people here were sent to death camps, but this gentleman survived.

Miriam listening to Ozarow gentleman who survived Holocaust Our guide interprets.

Back in Warsaw, tonight was our last dinner together. Actually three of us have already departed, but the rest gathered at another incredible restaurant. Two children who survived the Holocaust joined us. These two ladies have both lived in Warsaw for over 50 years and shared their stories with several of the Jewish members of our group. The rest of us hope to hear their stories through those who dined closest to them at the table.

We are all weary, but will hate to say good-bye tomorrow. It has been an incredible 8 days of history, sight-seeing, making friends, learning another language, and being exposed to another culture. That said, I will be happy to return to Albion tomorrow.

            When I was assigned two pages of mandatory journaling per day, I reacted as most ordinary students would: with a groan. Before this trip, I’d never written a truly reflective journal or kept an insightful diary of my day to day life- and right now, I really wish I had. The whole process is really quite soothing; it’s kind of like being able to rant and rave for as long as you like to a friend who is really, really great at listening. For those of you who haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it.

The Polish countryside is beautiful. The sun is shining and picturesque, cream colored clouds are floating lazily through the soft, blue sky. As we are zooming by the fields of reds, yellows, and greens I am trying my very hardest to stay focused on blog. I’m finding it incredibly difficult to collect my thoughts with the sheer idea of Auschwitz looming in the distance. I’ve read books, I’ve heard survivor testimonies, and I’ve seen pictures, but still I have absolutely no idea what to expect. How will I react? After watching Schindler’s List, I fled the auditorium, trying desperately not to think about what I’d seen. If a movie could bring me so close to tears, where will this experience leave me?

The way I see it, I have two options: I can put up a wall in an attempt to deflect the impact of what I will see, or I can absorb it all and hope for the best. From an outside standpoint, I’m sure most of you will tell me the latter is what is needed, but put yourself in my shoes. Every second I get closer to the largest, most efficient death camp ever constructed- the true brainchild of Hitler and Himmler. I can say with complete honesty that I am afraid to leave myself unguarded. Maybe the best course of action is simply to pray to G-d that I find the strength to keep moving through the day… maybe that’s what I’ll do. This is where I’ll stop- I’m afraid I’ve been hogging the computer for a bit too long. Goodbye for now.

Chelsea:

How does one prepare themselves for Auschwitz? Can you? For me, this entire trip and the class before it has been a kind of attempt at emotional preparation. We’ve discussed the history of the Jewish people in Poland, heard of their thriving communities. We’ve heard the stories of survivors. We’ve helped to restore a Jewish cemetery. Those that were buried there were lucky enough to have graves, to have tombstones with their names marking where they laid.

Jocelyn:

At this point, we arrived and Chelsea had to quit blogging. More later (Tuesday, perhaps) on our tour of Auschwitz. Meanwhile, it’s time to pack the suitcase, turn in, and get up in time to leave the hotel at 5:45 am. We’ll see you back in Michigan!

It has been a very pleasant and enjoyable experience interacting with the students on this trip.  We have had two meals with them and joined them for a work session at the New Jewish Cemetery in Wroclaw. Although all of the students are great, it has been most pleasing for me to meet Katie Stevens. The reason? She currently lives about 2 miles from where I grew up in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Consequently, we come from the same school district. Although there have been some changes in that district, the high school that I graduated from in 1966 is now a middle school that Katie attended, we have the same roots. Three cheers for Dearborn Heights!

Katie Stevens, '11, and William Rafaill, '72, at the New Jewish Cemetery

Our tour started from our Hotel Astoria in the Kazimierz district. Kazimierz was home to the large Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Here you can visit seven synagogues. Only two are in use today. Before the war, Krakow was home to about 65,000 Jews. After the war, only 5,000 remained. Today — only 150.

Our tour guide explained what happened to the Jews of Krakow. In 1940, most of them were resettled outside the city limits. The remaining 15,000 were moved into an overcrowded ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1943, those who were not sent to the death camps of Belzec or Auschwitz wound up in the labor camp at Plaszow. From here they “commuted” daily to work in several factories. Here is one such factory: This, of course, is the famous Oskar Schindler enamel factory. Schindler managed to prevent the deportation of many of his Jewish employees from Plaszow to Auschwitz. When the 2001 Holocaust Studies Service Learning Project first saw this factory, they were amazed that this deed had not been commemorated there in any way. They raised the money to create a plaque and have it mounted on the outside wall. The factory has just been renovated into a museum. One of the best surprises of our day was to find that our plaque was still mounted in a prominent location.   The quote from the Babylonian Talmud indicates that when someone saves a life, he or she saves not only that one person but also all the descendants that person will have in the future. More than 60 years later, Schindler has already saved a small town.

On Thursday the 14th the alumni group met the students at the New Jewish Cemetery of Wroclaw for a joint work session. I was nominated to be the photographer (it was a tough, exhausting job but someone had to do it). Here are a few photos:

And a picture of everyone:

This morning we finished clearing our section of the cemetery, including the newly-discovered path. We then made the journey to Krakow. After a 4+ hour bus ride and a walk by the Vistula, we are ready for bed. (The faculty and staff, that is.) So, good night from:

Jocelyn, Dan, Lane, Drew, and Frank

Our translator Matt (’09)

And the whole crew

Today we visited the Auschwitz I concentration/extermination camp near Oswiecim and Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II. I was saddened when we visited Treblinka in Warsaw last Monday. Treblinka was also a Nazi death camp. But, somehow today’s excursion through the real places that millions of people marched to their death rendered a deep blow to my heart and soul. I cannot begin to explain how I felt … a mixture of disbelief, horror, shame, and confusion. So many things run through my mind and heart. Downloading the pictures my husband took today ran another sword through my soul. I felt guilty just thinking about being interested in what these innocent people suffered through. This was not like visiting Alcatraz and finding it fascinating as to how the prisoners might have escaped. They were convicted criminals; but the people targeted by the Nazis had done nothing to deserve this treatment. They suffered far more than physical torture; theirs is a story of a fight to maintain dignity in the depths of hopelessness. “Never Again,” posted at the Treblinka Memorial is the best I can settle for as I can’t handle the rest. I leave it to God to do that.

Plaque at Auschwitz International Memorial

Today is our last day in Wroclaw.  Hopefully we can work hard in the cemetery and finish our section.  Though this will be a great accomplishment, there are still many other sections that also need help.  I have enjoyed working much more than I thought I would, however, one day after a work I actually found a bug in the fold on the bottom of my pants.

When I was young my parents visted France and they came back with the story of my mom ordering a fish and getting it with the head and tail still on.  As a young child, I was incredibly shocked by this and the story has stuck with me until this day.  Last night, at dinner I ordered trout with french fries.  I had the same experience as my mom and it ended up coming with the head, tail, and skin on it.  It was a little strange to look at, but it still tasted good!

I am very excited to go and see Krakow today because I hear that it is beautiful.  I hope that everybody continues to read about our adventures there!

During the war, this courtyard served as Wroclaw’s Umschlagsplatz. This is where the Jews of Breslau were assembled for deportation.

The Community Center shares the courtyard with the “White Stork” Synagogue. It is the only synagogue left in Wroclaw. All other Breslau synagogues were destroyed in 1938 on the night of anti-Jewish rioting known as Kristallnacht, including the large Reform temple.

This monument marks the place where it once stood.

The White Stork would have shared the same fate except that its proximity to other buildings guaranteed that a fire there would have done too much damage to the neighborhood. It survived the Nazis only to be vandalized by the Russians and left in a state of disrepair — until recently. The work of renovation is scheduled for completion this year, in time for the synagogue’s 180th anniversary.

Rabbi Rapoport showed us all the renovations. He then led us to the yeshiva synagogue, where the Wroclaw congregation prays.

This synagogue is much, much smaller than the one under repair. R. Rapoport told us that there are approximately 1,000 Jews in Wroclaw. Of these, 300 have joined the synagogue. They bury their dead in “our” cemetery — the New Jewish Cemetery.

This is another reason why our work here is so important. As R. Rapoport said two years ago, “How can you be proud of your cemetery when it looks like a wilderness?” The Soviets destroyed the house of mourning just inside the synagogue gates. Here it was before the war:

Here is is today:

Most of the cemetery looks like this:

Two years ago, we cleared this section. It looked like this when we finished:

Already the weeds and saplings are trying to reclaim it.

Jayne and I were over there today with clippers, cutting out some of the new growth. Synagogue renovation; cemetery resoration — it is all part of the same work.