Today was our last day together. The agenda was light – some processing and tour reflection, an evening meal together, and a classical music concert. Still, the students managed to get a lot out of it. This was such a great group of students (they wanted to be sure that everyone knows that I feel that way! – which tells you something about the playful nature of this group – they knew when to focus and they knew when to, and how to, have a little fun with the group dynamics). They were so fully invested in the experience and

By 6:15 we were on the road to the Auschwitz camp complex. We met David Kennedy, my friend and incredible Auschwitz tour guide, along the way and toured both camps I and II between 8:30 and 4. It was a long, emotionally (and physically) taxing day. But the students did so well. I look forward to debriefing with them tomorrow. A few pictures are below. (Sorry, it was hard to be selective.) Afterward, David and Basia, his fiancé, invited us to see and learn about the nearby International Youth Meeting Center – a place where both of them work. They

Today was a lighter day, but still included more than one church, a couple cemeteries, several memorials, and one museum. The pictures below include shots from Corpus Christi Basilica in Kazimierz, Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Old Town, the New Jewish Cemetery, Remah Cemetery, the Empty Chairs Memorial, several markers at Płaszów Concentration Camp and surroundings, the Florian Gate and an interesting Madonna and Child at that gate, and the Schindler Factory Museum. Tomorrow is Auschwitz. We have an extended tour planned, as well as a visit to the nearby International Youth Meeting Center where my friend and

A seven-plus hour train ride delivered us safely and (relatively) smoothly from Berlin to Kraków; training-it is definitely the way to go. We also got into town on schedule and made it to our hotel with enough time to spend over 3 hours walking around and up the Wawel Castle, eventually making our way to the square in Old Town Kraków. (For the first time, we are staying in Kazimierz, the old Jewish district.) Some pictures are below. Tomorrow we will further explore Kazimierz, walk over to the ghetto on the other side of the Vistula River, and also check

Today was our last in Berlin, and it was free for the students to explore. We get up early tomorrow to catch a train to Poland, so this evening’s summary will be light on description and heavy on pictures. I used the day to try and track down several places I’ve been meaning to get to, like the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, now absorbed into the Max Planck Institute of the Freie Universität of Berlin. They have, in the hallways of the research center, a series of nine exhibits. (Three more in the parking lot

Today we trained it up to Fürstenberg an der Havel to explore the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. It’s pretty far away from Berlin – but three trains and about three hours got us there. At the camp, students explored a variety of topics including women guards, women prisoners, unique features of female solidarity, children in the camp, the Corrie and Betsy Ten Boom story, the Saint Maria of Paris story, post-war prosecutions, and the juxtaposition of a concentration camp with a beautiful lakeside German city, separated from each other by only a small body of water – and each in view