Kelsey: Not The End, Just a New Beginning

Attending a Jewish Shabbat Service All I can say is wow. This past week has been a long journey and amazing opportunity.  I’m sitting here reflecting on the week and I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and saw. I also can’t believe that in a few hours I will be on the plane back home. Today was a good end to the trip. We went to the city of Krakow, had a walking tour of the old Jewish neighborhood and saw the location of the former Jewish...

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Chelsea: The Last Chapter

View of Krakow from the Castle Grounds of the Wawel Castle Our adventures in Poland have unfortunately come to an end - but went out with a bang as we spent this beautiful sunny day exploring the city of Krakow. We spent the morning on a four hour tour of the city - focusing on many of the former Jewish areas. We covered a lot of territory. First we visited the former Jewish district of Kazimierz. The remains of Jewish cultural life can be...

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Michelle: I 'Met' a Scientist and Ate Pierogi. Oh, Krakow, how I love you!

I can describe my whole time in Krakow using many adjectives and descriptive words, but I think pictures do the describing better than I ever could. One thing that I do have to describe perfectly is that I met my scientist, Copernicus. His lab is in Krakow and there was a statue of him. I am a little bit of a fan-girl, if you get my drift. I mean, come on. He put the sun in its place. You have to love him.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus Well,...

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Stembridge Maimbo: Thank you.

It is like a dream. one week has ended like a blink of an eye. there is so much one can learn here. Auschwitz is a place of amazing stories and experiences. today we were in Krocow  having an experience of what it was like before the second world war. As one man I met today at the prayer session in preparation for sabbath said, 'Poland has a long history with the Jews. most of what was held dear and precious by the Jews was destroyed during...

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Chelsea: A Movie Review

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas  - Our attempt to unwind after a long week. A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.  - Stanley Kubrick I believe in the power of film. It can be a very useful means in conveying a lesson. If done effectively, film can make you feel and make you think. I...

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Michelle: The Person Living in Broken Glass

Today was spent in the Center listening to wonderful and informative lectures from our professors and even a visiting professor from Auschwitz. Because we did not get out and did not take any photos, I have this photo I took a few days ago at the Jewish cemetery in Wadowice. I knew when I took the picture, I felt something but I wasn't sure what it was. I've had nearly a week to think about this photo and what it meant and how it made me feel....

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stembridge Maimbo. what is human being?

After exploring and working on this holy ground of Auschwitz. Words are not enough to describe what happened here. let me share something a survivor wrote which disturbed me since yesterday today may be tomorow too. you may refer to the images i posted yesterday....

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Kelsey: A poem I wrote "The Birk Tree"

INTRO: This is a poem I wrote because I was inspired by the trees at Birkenau. In one of my previous blogs I mentioned how before the people entered the gas chambers they were forced to wait in the woods (mostly woman and children). They often had to strip down before entering the crematorium right there in the trees. And so...this is where I got the idea from... Site of a former Crematorium The Birk Tree I can’t describe what happened....

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Chelsea: Auschwitz - The Ultimate Haunted House

Self Portrait of Holocaust Survivor and Artist Marian Kolodziej (left is his prisoner identity, right is him after the war) The Layout of the Exhibit "Sometimes I can't help but feel helplessI'm havin' daymares in daytimeWide awake try to relateThis can't be happenin' like I'm in a dream while I'm walkin'Cause what I'm seein' is hauntingHuman beings like ghost and zombies.."  -From "Road to Zion" by Damian Marley and Nas Today I saw...

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stem relationships

This morning, we went to see the art work by one of the survivals at Auschwitz 1. He was in camp for five years from 1940 to 1945. If you wanted to hear anything about life in the camp, he was the man to listen to. His story was shared in art form and really the images he printed are very powerful. I feel as if I am dreaming. How he survived all the five years, God knows. Here are some of the images that remained in me. These are the words he communicates...

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Kelsey: "Time is short so you must bear-witness"

 Marian Kolodziej Wednesday. I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday. Today we saw an art exhibition of drawings by Marian Kolodziej. Marian was a Holocaust survivor who was a prisoner in the concentration camps, including Auschwitz for 5 years. The exhibition was designed in the basement of a church all carefully laid out and positioned by Marian himself. Upon entering you are right away presented with words written in Polish by Marian. "(...)it's...

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Michelle: Art and Shadows

Drawing in Marian Kolodziej's Labyrinth,  a testimony to his five years in Auschwitz. This morning we went to the art exhibition of a very interesting man, Marian Kolodziej. He spent five years in the camps, primarily Auschwitz, which is phenomenal when most sent there only lasted weeks or months. He was number 432. After Liberation, he did not speak of his time there for over 40 years. He then had a stroke, and was finally compelled to give...

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Michelle: Among the Lost

I am the way into the city of woe,  I am the way into the eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost. 'Per me si va ne la citta dolente,  Per me si va ne l'etterno dolore, Per me si va tra la perduta gente. - Canto 3, Dante's Divine Comedy On the syllabus for this course, one of our trip's guides, Dr. Procario-Foley, pointed out a quote from a Jewish philosopher, Emil Fackenheim. He says, "Auschwitz is a unique descent...

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Kelsey: Birkenau-The Wrong Side of The Tracks

Entrance to Birkenau and train tracks Hello! Today, we went to the second part of Auschwitz, Birkenau. Birkenau was actually designed by the Nazis and didn’t exist until after the German occupation (unlike Auschwitz 1). We arrived there and met up with our same excellent guide from yesterday. Our first stop was to the tower that looks over all of Birkenau. It was from here that you can see how vast this concentration camp was, well as much...

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Chelsea: A Day of Remembrance

The foreboding entrance to Auschwitz II - Birkenau The group and our guide in front of the International Memorial at Birkenau Having now been to both camps, I realize that what I have seen I cannot translate into words. As the saying goes, you literally have to see it to believe it. I realized immediately upon arrival that Birkenau was a much different place than the Auschwitz I camp we saw yesterday. I do not want to discredit or downplay...

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Rays of hope in ashes

I have so that you may have life and have it to the fullest. In spite of the dangers and tribulations someone went through, life is still precious. An 87 year old survival Mr Ignacy shared his experience with us. how he lost his family members and reconnected with his brother. He is a Polish citizen of Jewish origin. He was held in many places from 1940 until April 1945 at the liberation. In his sharing of the story, you could see the innocence...

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Chelsea: Auschwitz and Oswiecim - The Past and The Present

Sign commemorating the gas chambers and crematorium at Auschwitz I The group and our new Polish friends at PWSZ So today was the big day of this trip: our first visit to Auschwitz I. The site has literally been staring us in the face since our arrival on Saturday as it is located directly across the street from the Centre. But today we actually stepped foot in the former death camp and spent three and a half hours there on an informative...

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Kelsey: The Auschwitz Experience

An image of the campt and the electric barbed wire fence Area designating for shooting executions  Hanging with the Polish students I’m sure everyone’s anxious to hear my reaction from today’s Auschwitz visit but I’m going to try to not go to in depth until after seeing Birkenau tomorrow. This is because I have so many different thoughts and feelings and so many different facts and images to process that I want to wait until I have...

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Michelle: In Auschwitz

The infamous sign leading us into Auschwitz, which in English says "Work will set you free". Well, here is the bread and butter of our trip... why we are here in Poland, and a big part of what we are studying. I knew that and I sort of had in my mind what I was to expect... I knew it was going to be hard, painful, etcetera...etcetera. You know, I felt I was trained my entire life to see certain images or feel certain things... but it is so different......

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