The Memorial at Brandenburg I’m going to be super brief today. I need to catch up on sleep. We spent the day with historian and educator (and friend), Christian Marx. He works at the Brandenburg Euthanasia Memorial where he, among other responsibilities, organizes and leads group interactions with the history of the National Socialists’ attempt to rid the German public of “lives unworthy of life,” a phrase coined by academics over a decade before the Nazi’s came to power. Yes, it is a dark, dark topic. But the students did so very well. Christian met us in Berlin where we

Walking Tour of Berlin Our first full day of the tour was designed to ease ourselves into our topic and to gain familiarity with the many things to do within walking distance and short train rides around Berlin. On the lighter side, we checked out Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate (a subgroup went on to find the 1936 Olympiastadion and the Kaiser Wilhelm II Memorial Church ruins. On the more sobering side, we spent time at the Topography of Terror Museum, the Aktion T4 Memorial, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The first batch of pictures

Arriving in Berlin, Getting Familiar with Alexanderplatz On this first day we gathered everyone from the airport and made our way to our hotel, sitting in the heart of the city – Alexanderplatz. This impressively-sized square was the primary city center of the former East Berlin. Its’ most prominent feature is the towering Fernsehturn, the Soviet-built TV tower built in the late 1960’s made to both invoke Sputnik and to dwarf any similarly-shaped church steeple – a comment on an imagined future, one that bespeaks of the Soviet claim that technology is the true savior of humanity; a realization that

So Long, Kraków Today was our last day in Kraków, and indeed our last day of the tour. It was basically “Free Kraków” – however, we did have a final meal together and we did meet as a group to discuss Pierre Sauvage’s compelling documentary, Weapons of the Spirit, which chronicles the actions of the people of Le Chambon, a small community tucked away in the hills of south central France who managed to harbor about 5000 Jews during the war. In discussion, the students drew out several great observations – and a story like this was something we all

Auschwitz I and II Today we went to a place where language does not follow. A mere description of our day is all we have to offer. We walked through an 8-hour educational tour of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau) with the help of my friend and exceptional guide, David Kennedy. Afterward, we met at the hotel to discuss our experience. In our time of sharing, many themes emerged. Here are some of the most persistent ones: the ethics of using knowledge gained by inhumane experiments and the post-war allied use of experts tainted by affiliation with the National

A Little Bit of Everything Our first full day in Kraków provided us the opportunity to cover a lot of bases. We peeked into St. Mary’s (and actually 3 other churches as well), walked up to Wawel Castle, passed through the Kazimierz District and on to the Ghetto Memorial and the Ghetto Wall Memorial, and finishing mid-day at the Schindler Factory Museum. Several of us topped the day off by attending an evening classical music concert in St. Peter and Paul’s Church where we heard about 15 pieces from composers like Schubert, Mozart, Bach, and Vivaldi. Pretty strong day when

Travel to Kraków, Poland Short and sweet review for today. Thursday was almost entirely spent in the coach traveling from Berlin to Kraków. We were able, however, to meet-up with Asbury alum and missionary (and fellow Zoo boy), Mike Green, who has spent over 30 years in this city. Mike was kind enough to take the lead on a brief walking tour of Old Town – we only had time to swing through the square and then catch a dusky glimpse of the castle. Tomorrow we will do some more proper exploring. Here are a few pics from the day:

Distance The word “distance” seems, in many ways, to be a fitting description of our experience today. For starters, our destination, Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, was a great distance away from Berlin, and the camp itself was a good 45 minute walk from the closest train station. Furthermore, there was a dramatic lack of distance between the horrors experienced in the camp and the nearby city of Fürstenberg which sits nestled comfortably on the opposite shoreline of swelling in the Havel River. Conversely, the residents of this beautiful little German town have worked hard to create a great distance between themselves