May 18
On this trip to Birkenau the sky has been difficult to understand. Lots of big clouds, but today there was a rainbow over Birkenau. A rainbow. I don’t think I can say more than that. Earlier, while in the Women’s Camp B1A, I was searching for the section of the camp built by women deported …
May 18
Students mean the world to me. They are a gift that always makes me think about things I might otherwise ignore. Most students would never come on a Holocaust Study Abroad. Why would anyone want to spend time with such a devastating subject? I’ve learned it takes special students…those who want to contemplate that slippery …
May 16
Around 2010 I wanted to add Holocaust courses to the curriculum at Old Dominion University. I started by participating in a number of programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and in 2013 I launched a Holocaust Study Abroad. It’s amazing to me how once you start going to a place, …
May 14
Tonight we ate dinner at “Dawno Temu Na Kazimierzu” or “Once upon a time in Kazimierz.” The restaurant tries to recreate the ambiance of a late 19th- or early 20th-century Jewish home. It’s small and intimate. Now admittedly we are in Kazimierz which is to Jewish culture what Colonial Williamsburg is to colonial times—made up, …
May 14
The thing I love about study abroad is getting to know the students. Of course I love being in the classroom, but on study abroad, the world is the classroom. It’s fantastic. We have such a great group of students…and no one complained that it rained all day. I have seen many a Kraków skyline, …
May 10
In preparing to leave for Poland, remember to pack two important items: 1) Peter Hayes, Why? Explaining the Holocaust 2) Patrick Desbois, The Holocaust by Bullets
May 04
I’ve always loved travel. In fact, when I was a kid, I use to pack up a nap sack and sit on my bed pretending it was an airplane taking me somewhere. I don’t even really mind airplanes…they get me places. I do look forward to traveling with Tom and the students on this trip. …
May 02
On Yom HaShoah please remember the life of Esther Ferstenfeld. Esther died at Birkenau in the fall of 1942. She was only 16 years old. May her life be bound for eternity with the bonds of life she created in her own time and in our time as we remember her. May her memory always …
