Today Damien and I visited and toured Sobibor, a remote camp that sits at the border of Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. It functioned for about 18 months and the estimates of the number murdered here varies wildly. Conservatively, 180,000 is most often cited. It, along with Treblinka, is the camp where the use of deception was most successfully and most extensively practiced. It is also the location of the most successful escape from an Operation Reinhard camp – this event being most likely instrumental in its closure just a few weeks later. Below are some pictures. Tomorrow I will explore

No Words To Be Found It took a while, but all of the Asbury students are now back on U.S. soil. I, however, am staying over for a few days to do some more exploring. My good Aussie mate, Damien Stewart, now a full-time resident of Warsaw who is finishing up a Ph.D. focused on generational trauma, has agreed to zip me around to a few places over the next couple of days. First up, Bełżec – a Nazi extermination camp on the west side of the Bug River (the demarcation line that the Russians and Germans settled on prior

Last Day… Today was “free Kraków” for the students until our final meeting this afternoon followed by a team meal in the evening. Since most of us have to catch a bus to the airport at 3 am tomorrow morning, tonight’s post will be exceptionally brief. Our time of reflection and processing was, yet once again, so impressive. In addition to our experiences, I asked the students to watch the documentary, Weapons of the Spirit by Pierre Sauvage. It tells the story of the residents of Le Chambon during the war years, and how the simple people of this peasant

Auschwitz I and II (Birkenau) Today we traveled west out of Krakow to the Polish community of Oświęcim, a medium-sized city in the Silasian province of Poland that is known for its railroad crossings. The Nazis, after taking this town in the early days of the war, did what they did in countless other places, they sought to Germanize it by giving it a new name, Auschwitz. We were met at the camp by my friend and expert tour guide, David Kennedy. It was fantastic to see him again – and to introduce him to my friend Christian Marx. The

A Memorial, Museum, Church, and Castle On Friday, the team had a hefty agenda, but we pulled it off. First, we made our way to the Jewish Ghetto Memorial and then we headed to the Museum that is now housed in Schindler’s old factory. The processing here centered around some of the unique features of it (informative, engaging, creative, definite flow) but also the felt sense that the Polish-Jewish tension was not properly explored. This was a good opportunity for us to explore some of the questions around discovering and communicating history. After some lunch, we wound our way over

The (Long, Fun, Beautiful, Wet) Trip to Kraków Taking a train from Berlin to Kraków is the way to go. There was beautiful scenery, no traffic jams, and a lot of enjoyment being able to move about freely as we traveled. But still….it was a long day. And to put the icing on the cake, we got rained on pretty hard at the very end. But, it is such a bonus to have Christian Marx traveling with us! What he will be able to add to the experience for all of us will be invaluable. Well, we arrived in town

Short and Sweetened (with Aspartame) Today was our last full day in Berlin. Tomorrow morning a train will carry us, luggage and all, to Kraków, Poland. Over the course of the last week we have seen an experienced so much! (Some students were commenting that it seems like we’ve been here for a month.) For about half of us, the day started out by catching a regional train up to Neubrandenburg, a city in the state of Mecklenburg that sits more than halfway up from Berlin to the Baltic Sea. On the northwest shores of the Lake Tollen sits a

Corrie, Quarry, and Glory Ok, I’m not going to be able to live up to that headline…just letting you know that right now. Today the team traveled by rail to the station a small town on the Havel River that sits about 60 miles due north of Berlin, Fürstenberg. Directly across the water from this beautiful little lakeside community lies the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp – the only major camp in the Third Reich’s system predominately imprisoning women. Some may have heard of this camp due to its many notable detainees, the Christian author Corrie ten Boom being the most recognizable

Ideas, Bureaucracy, Distance from Action, and Genocide Today was one of two days specifically dedicated to explore the role of bureaucracy in the Holocaust. The Wannsee House, a spacious and luxurious villa in a ritzy resort town southwest of Berlin, was the location where orders were handed down to the various ministers and secretaries of the Third Reich needed for this coordinated action, this execution of “the final solution to the Jewish question,” to run smoothly. From among the 15 officials who sat around the table one could tally up numerous advanced degrees (at least 8 Ph.D’s) and jurist doctorates,

The Jewish Museum of Berlin Many students started off the day attending a worship service at the notable church of the Kaiser’s, the Berliner Dom. It is a congregation that is said to represent all protestant denominations in Germany, not just the Lutherans. We were able to hear several pieces by a visiting choir and we were also able to witness a couple infant baptisms. The service was translated for the students and the hospitality on display by the church staff was fantastic. One of our students also had a birthday today, Maris Wainwright (Happy birthday, Maris!) – lunch at