Lodz, Poland, 1938
Lodz, Poland, 1938 – Roman Vishniac
Tracing the Holocaust in Eastern Europe
May 24 – June 7, 2014
Tracing the Holocaust in Eastern Europe takes us to a part of the world where Nazi Germany
carried out the “final solution to the Jewish question” under the cover of World War II. Poland
was home to some three-and-a-half million Jews, 90 per cent of whom died in the genocide we
call the Holocaust. Another two million Jews from every corner of Europe were transported to
extermination centers such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Chelmno —three places we will visit in
Poland. In Krakow, Warsaw, and Bialystok, we will tour former Jewish neighborhoods and visit
museums, synagogues, and churches in the “old town” of each city. In the evenings we will
meet with university students and sample the vibrant night life. In Berlin, we will visit the new
Jewish Museum, the Museum to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and other sites that convey the
history of a once-thriving people decimated under a banner of hatred in the heart of civilized
Europe. At every stop, we will investigate how the Holocaust is remembered and forgotten,
and how young Poles and Germans come to grips with an unspeakable past.
Were the Nazis just a bunch of criminals who stoked religious and ethnic hatred for personal
gain, or was the Holocaust an expression of deep-seated tendencies in western civilization?
Was the ascendancy of Nazism inevitable or only one possible response to the Jews’ thousandyear presence in Europe? From their acquisition of civil rights in Germany in the 1860s until
their oppression in the 1930s, Jews enjoyed a cultural renaissance that affected every area of
national life. Jews in Germany and neighboring Poland rose to prominence in all the arts and
sciences, in business and the military, too. The remnants of their achievements, the marks they
left on the land, in the memories of individuals yet living, and in the cultural treasures of the
people who had once been their neighbors, are also our objects of study.
Maymester Study Abroad: Tracing the Holocaust in Eastern Europe
Itinerary – Poland/Germany May-June 2014
May: Sat 24 – depart from Charleston International Airport for Krakow, Poland
Sun 25 – arrive Krakow mid-day, meet guide Jerzy Pytko, check in at hotel, walking tour of central
square, rest and recovery (Krakow)
Mon 26 – visit Schindler’s Factory Museum, Jewish Museum of Galicia, and Jagiellonian University;
cultural event in evening (Krakow)
Tues 27 – visit Auschwitz, morning and afternoon; International Youth Center in Oswiecim (Krakow)
Wed 28 – drive to Lodz, tour old ghetto neighborhood; textile museum; train station memorial (Lodz)
Thurs 29 – visit Chelmno, morning; Warsaw afternoon, check in at hotel and walk to Old Town (Warsaw)
Fri 30 – visit Jewish Institute, University of Warsaw, Jewish Museum of Poland (Warsaw)
Sat 31—tour remains of ghetto, Chopin Museum or Museum of Literature, evening on town (Warsaw)
June: Sun 1—to Treblinka, morning; arrive Bialystok, evening cultural event (Bialystok)
Mon 2 – work in old Jewish cemetery; return to Warsaw, evening train to Berlin (Berlin)
Tues 3 – arrive Berlin (midnight), check in hotel; late morning walking tour with Sue Arns; eve Shavuot
services, Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue, dinner (Berlin)
Wed 4 –AM Museum of the Murdered Jews of Europe; PM Pergamon Museum of Classical Antiquities
eve event (Berlin)
Thurs 5 – guided tour Topography of Terror; free afternoon ; evening cultural event (Berlin)
Fri 6 – AM Berlin Jewish Museum, PM and eve, Carnival of Cultures (Berlin)
Sat 7 – return to US
Trip leaders: Ted Rosengarten, Dale Rosengarten
[email protected]
843-887-3352