Today we successfully got to two very important places – the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp and the Wannsee Conference House. It was a full day – but everyone did great, and the train system served us well. Although these venues share the same S1 Bahn line, they represent a lot of contrasts between them. One is at the extreme northern tip of the city rail line system, while the other is on the outer edge of the southwest corner. One is marked by depravity while the other features gluttony. One is remembered for the hordes of powerless who toiled there seemingly

For many of us, our day started at the historic Berliner Dom for a morning worship service – it turned out to also include the confirmation of about 12-15 new young members as well as a baptism. The church is absolutely beautiful on the inside and the folks tending to those of us needing translation are so kind, thoughtful, and helpful. A real ministry. The main tour-themed event of the day was an afternoon visit to the Jewish Museum of Berlin. It generated a lot of post-visit discussion. Students were notably impressed with how well the architecture of the building

Today we pivoted away from a visit to Sachsenhausen and instead were welcomed by Albrecht Winterhager into the family house of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He shared some of the Bonhoeffer story and then let us explore the house, including the study upstairs that Dietrich would use when he was in Berlin. Then, since we were only one train station away, we went to Berlin’s Olympia Stadion – built by Hitler for the 1936 games, this is where Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals. The trains were not helping us make it to Sachsenhausen…so, we’ll try to get there on Monday. Instead,

Today we spent in Brandenburg, touring through this mid-sized city and learning about the euthanasia program the National Socialists started there just a couple months after the war started. Christian Marx was our guide the entire day. We visited and learned about one of the city’s very old churches (St. Catherine’s – going to back to the 14th century), some important local resistance, and the moral capitulation of many doctors, nurses, and administrators. (Nearly10,000 men, women, and children were killed by CO2 gas in about 9 months of time. This was the first place to design and employ gas as

Today we started off by looking for evidence of a culture of memory in the Hackescher Market section of Berlin. Here we found several Stolpersteine (stumbling stones), spotted some centers for potential exploration in the days to come (namely, an Anne Frank Center and the Otto Weidt Center), and briefly visited a Jewish Cemetery Memorial that was desecrated by the Nazi’s but restored for the purpose of visitation in 2008, albeit without the missing headstones. (The 18th century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn is buried there.) We then met my friend and historian Christian Marx at the Trains to Life, Trains to

Today we focused on the culture of memory that can be found within walking distance of our hotel – i.e., the heart of Berlin. We explored Alexanderplatz, the Rosenstraβe Protest, Museum Island and the Berliner Dom, Bebelplatz, the Topography of Terror Museum, the Aktion T-4 Memorial, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and several other culturally relevant sites. It was a long day with a lot of walking, but we experienced so much. And, there was just enough time for some individual exploring at the end…pics below will capture some of that. Tomorrow we will again focus on

Well, the gang is all here! All-in-all, gathering them up from the airport and train stations was rather uneventful. Just one flight hiccup and one ICE train delay. Very thankful for that. It nice to finally be all together in Berlin after having met several times as a group in our pre-tour spring meetings. Let me say emphatically, the questions are already flowing. “Did I see a Nazi pin on the shirt of that guy who was panhandling?” “How do the Germans feel about people coming to their country to learn about the Holocaust?” “Is it just me or are

Well, I made it to Berlin around mid-day and had a pretty productive afternoon and evening. Namely, I re-familiarized myself with the surroundings – there are always new things going on, and then I went exploring. This year there are several new large (10 story +) buildings going up around Alexanderplatz – and the station itself is under construction. You can still reach the platform to use the station and you can still buy rail tickets, but all of the commercial businesses under the station are closed and empty. Quick and diverse foods will not be quite as quick and

Below is a summary of this year’s Holocaust Studies Tour, 2024 The tour this year was, as each one promises to be, a sundry blend of the predictable and repeatable commingled with the new, the unanticipated, and the potently particular. This is the complex base-fabric out of which study abroad experiences are cut. With regard to the new and particular, I was so pleased this time around to be able to meet Dr. Daniel Rottke and Historian Fabian Schwanzar at a place called Alt Rehse, a retreat and resort built by the National Socialists on the western banks of the

About ten years ago, I found myself in mid-career and looking for some new direction. A good friend of mine, Dr. Brian Shelton, who had significant experience with study abroad trips, suggested we combine our interests and offer a psychologically and theologically themed Holocaust Studies tour of central Europe. We crafted together a rather ambitious schedule that covered 4 cities in about 9 days. Amidst the many museums, memorials, and related points of interest were two concentration camps, Dachau and Auschwitz. Even though we had over 30 students combined from two different institutions, everything went off without a hitch. A