TERMS AND CONDITIONS TOUR DATES Thursday, May 12 -­ Tuesday, May 17, 2016 (Departure from US – May 11) (Return from Berlin – May 17) TOUR FEATURES ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Five (5) nights accommodations in four star deluxe hotels including breakfast, taxes, service charges and baggage handling (1 standard size bag plus 1 carry-­on per person) Escorted by Jewish Historian and Educator, Claire Simmons Two dinners -­ Shabbat Dinner and a Final Dinner Daily group discussions Extensive sightseeing with expert local guides as described in the itinerary, including entrance fees where applicable Private deluxe motor coach Comprehensive tour manual Custom laminated luggage tags DEPOSIT: A deposit in the amount of $1500 per person is due at time of registration. Upon receipt of the deposit payment, Jewish History Travels will send you a written confirmation along with information for final payment. FINAL PAYMENT: Final payment will be due no later than February 12, 2016. Final payment can be made by a check or any major credit card. This tour is based on a minimum participation of 20 tour members. If participants are less than 20, Jewish History Travels reserves the right to increase the tour price. If the tour price increases and you wish to cancel the tour, you will be able to cancel without penalty. CANCELLATION PENALTIES: Cancellations made to the tour will be subject to the following penalties: Cancellations received more than 91 days prior to departure date is subject to a $750 penalty. Cancellations received 90 days or less prior to departure is subject to 100% penalty. 2016 TOUR PRICE (land only) ● ● $2,940.00 (Per person based on Double Occupancy) $495.00 (Single Supplement) TO ARRANGE AIR / PRE AND POST TOURS / HOTEL EXTENSIONS / TRANSFERS Please call Carla Koller at (240) 387-­4160 or e-­mail Carla at [email protected] POST TOUR EXTENSION Claire would like to offer a post extension to Krakow for two days. It would include a walking tour of Krakow on the 17th of May and a day trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau on the 18th of May. If you are interested in this extension, please contact Carla at 240-­387-­4027 for details and costs. REGISTRATION Visit our web site: http://www.jewishhistorytravels.com PASSPORTS: All US Citizens must have passports that are valid for six months beyond your return date. VISAS: All tour participants who are not US Citizens are responsible to obtain the necessary visas. We will gladly advise you of the required visas based on the country from which you hold a passport. DISCLAIMER: Many components of the tour are paid for in local currency. Should there be a significant decrease in the value of the dollar, we reserve the right to adjust the cost of the tour. DAY-­BY-­DAY ITINERARY DAY 1 -­ THURSDAY, MAY 12th Our tour begins this afternoon at our hotel at 1:30 PM when we will start our journey together to explore the extraordinary history of the Jewish people of Berlin. Our introduction to Berlin will start with a visit to the magnificent golden-­domed New Synagogue, a splendid eastern Moorish style building that was built between 1859 and 1866. At that time, it served as the largest Jewish house of worship in Germany. Although it survived Kristallnacht, it was badly damaged during the war. The present building is a reconstruction. We will make a stop at the Book Burning Monument located in the August Bebel Platz, where there are glass blocks that allow you to look below into the cellar to see the emptied book shelves. th
DAY 2 -­ FRIDAY, MAY 13 Today we will start with a full day tour of the Jewish quarter in East Berlin. Out first stop will be the Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt Museum, the site of Women's Protest, also called the Workshop of the Blind, owned by Otto Weidt. Weidt is a silent hero who employed blind and deaf Berlin Jews in his small brush and broom factory. We will continue our exploration of the Jewish quarter with a walking tour of the Hackescher Market, the Sophienstraße, and the Alte Hamburger Straße areas. We will view the Jewish Boys School, the Jewish cemetery with the grave of Moses Mendelsson, and the site of Women’s Protest on Rosenenstraße. After lunch we will visit of The German Resistance Memorial Center which is a historical site of the attempted coup of July 20, 1944, at the former Army High Command. Since 1953, the commemorative courtyard had been a site of remembrance for resistance to National Socialism. Tonight we will dine together for Shabbat. th
DAY 3 -­ SATURDAY, MAY 14 Morning at Leisure This afternoon we will visit the Hitler Bunker and the Chancellery site. Then we will continue to the Holocaust Memorial, also known as The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The site contains 2,711 concrete slabs, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It is an urban tribute to remember and honor up to six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It is located within walking distance between the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz. DAY 4 -­ SUNDAY, MAY 15th Today we set off for the suburbs of Berlin, first to visit the Berlin-­
Grunewald train station to stand on Platform 17, the major railway site for the deportation of Berlin Jews. Then we will continue on to the Wannsee Conference Center, where the top secret Wannsee Conference was held in 1942. Here, high ranking German officials, representing all of the important institutions of Nazi Germany, met in order to discuss and coordinate the operational aspects of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Then we will walk down the street to the Liebermann Villa for lunch and a guided tour of the villa. The house shows works of the Jewish impressionist painter Max Libermann (1847-­1935). After our visit of the Liebermann Villa we will head back to Berlin to the Bavarian quarter in Schöneberg. We will see Renate Stih and Frieder Schnock's famous street signs project, commemorating Nazi decrees against the Jewish population. We can see the bricks commemoration project done by the local elementary school, which was started in 1994 by pupils in the 6th grade. About 16,000 Jews lived in the Bavarian Quarter of the Schoneberg district before Hitler came to power. The “Places of Remembrance” memorial consists of 80 two-­sided plaques. One side has an innocent looking everyday item and the other side the official Nazi statute presenting anti-­Jewish laws and regulations under Nazi rule. If time allows, we will visit of the exhibition "We were neighbors", dealing with Jewish life in Schöneberg before and during WW2. DAY 5 -­ MONDAY, MAY 16th This morning we set off for the Reichstag building for a visit the roof cupola with a view of the entire city. Then we will continue on to the Jewish Museum of Berlin for a guided tour. The museum structure was designed by Daniel Liebeskind and presents a history of the Jews in German-­speaking countries along with special exhibits. On our return to our hotel we will stop near Checkpoint Charlie and visit the Topography of Terror Museum. Then we will continue back to the hotel to shop and relax. Tonight we will gather together for a farewell dinner to share our thoughts of Berlin’s past and present. DAY 6 -­ TUESDAY, MAY 17th Today we depart for home. “The most enduring commitments to Judaism are born of intellectual engagement
with its history and its lessons.” ~ Claire Simmons Claire Goldstein Simmons Born in Czechoslovakia, her family emigrated to Israel in 1949 and
lived in Hadera from 1949-1956. The Goldstein family came to the
United States in 1956. A graduate of the Jewish Theological
Seminary in New York, she established the Hebrew Department at
the American University in Washington, D.C. and has taught Jewish
history and the Holocaust for over thirty-five years. Claire was one of the founding teachers of the upper school of the
Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland. She
served as the Chairperson of the Jewish History Department from
1980-1994. Claire has written and lectured widely on Jewish
civilization, American Jewish memory and the Holocaust. She is a
fluent speaker of Hebrew and Yiddish. Claire Goldstein Simmons Phone: (240) 387-4161 [email protected] Jewish History Travels www.jewishhistorytravels.com