Our last day in Prague is a flurry of activity. In the morning, we visit the Jewish Ghetto, the Hradcany castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, and Franz Kafka's former residence. The afternoon is dedicated to last minute shopping, and the evening to our going away dinner. We the chaperon's have a rather "Stonehenge" moment as we supervise a trail mix competition, give awards for the trip, and watch on as Mr. Goldwarg serenades us one final time.
On Sunday we wake up extra early, and go from bus, to Prague's airport, to Paris, to Boston. Excited parents and surely customs agents greet us upon our return.
So what of it all? What ways have we, both the students and the chaperons, changed as the result of this trip? On the Friday of our return, many students from the trip wore orange shirts in support of Amnesty International and encouraging other students and teachers to question them about the meaning of the statistics they broadcast. Friday even more Facing History students will travel to the Holocaust Museum in our nation's capital to examine the same issues that we studied on the trip.
Today, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but not genocide. What does the future hold for the families of the murdered in Sudan, the displaced refugees from war-torn countries worldwide? Will our community at school respond differently as a result of what we have seen, or will history continue without our influence? Only time will tell for sure.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday 2.21, Terezin
According to Mr. Crane, "Terezin is all smoke and mirrors." This camp was different from the others that we saw. Located about one hour outside of Prague, Terezin is a Czech town that was taken over by the Nazis where Jews and Christians from the Czech Republic, and German Jews were sent. That isn't the entire story. For example; many German Jews in the camp paid for their train tickets to Terezin, and brought their valuables along with them. It was advertised as a day spa, which Jews could not attend as per the Nuremberg laws. The German Jews would arrive, have their valuables confiscated, and would be shuffled into the barracks where Czech Jews, all of who had been forcibly shipped to the camp, awaited. Conditions were, as one would expect in a camp, terrible. Prisoners had to deal with cramped living space, no personal freedoms, disease, and death. However, in some ways, the camp seems less bad than Auschwitz or Birkenau superficially. There was an active theater group there that performed plays and comedy routines. There were musical groups that performed regularly. People who were artists on the outside were put to work making art, albeit propaganda art for the Nazis. Those who died at the camp, Jewish or Christian, were afforded to a proper burial. Compared to the bleak hopelessness of the other camps, Terezin seems less bad. However, there is a decidedly more sinister side to the camp.
Prisoners at Terezin were helping to construct gas chambers at Theresienstadt, a nearby fortress being used by the Nazis as a prison camp used to hold Russian POWs and dissidents from Terezin. Although the gas chambers were never completed, thousands were executed at Theresienstadt. Many were tortured to death. Thousands more were shipped to Auschwitz to be gassed there. When Typhus broke out in Terezin, hundreds died as a result. "Not so bad" is only skin deep.
The ruse was however, good enough to fool the Red Cross. The Nazis made a propaganda film showing healthy men showering, people gardening, nurses treating old and sick patients, children playing, musicians performing, and residents looking generally content. When the Red Cross inspected Theresienstadt, they found that prisoners had a large shower room, and a room with individual sinks and mirrors; conditions that far exceeded the Geneva conditions for treatment of prisoners in wartime. Based upon the film and inspection, the Red Cross gave the Nazis a favorable review. In reality, the healthy showering men were recent arrivals to the camp, who had yet to show the ill effects of months of a starvation diet. The garden was irrigated with water from a nearby river, where crematorium ashes were dumped. The garden in the film was essentially fertilized with the camp's dead. Children did not live a happy existence at Terezin; they were forced to labor at the camp or were shipped to be "Aaryanized" with German families. People starved to death, and typhus was rampant in the cramped conditions. In fact, the individual sinks in Theresienstadt weren't even hooked up to water!
The smoke and mirrors were enough to prevent the Red Cross from sounding a warning cry about concentration camps, which was one of the numerous reasons that death factories such as Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek could continue as they did. The Red Cross did not apologize for their oversight until the 1970's. How much of the blame for these events do they deserve?
Ultimately, the end result for many of the occupants of Terezin was the same for prisoners at many other concentration camps. What makes it unique is the level of illusion that surrounded the camp. One feels guilty seeing irony in events that occurred there, rather than the pure tragedy of other camps. It begs us all to be extra vigilant as genocidal groups today continue to try and pull the wool over our eyes.
Prisoners at Terezin were helping to construct gas chambers at Theresienstadt, a nearby fortress being used by the Nazis as a prison camp used to hold Russian POWs and dissidents from Terezin. Although the gas chambers were never completed, thousands were executed at Theresienstadt. Many were tortured to death. Thousands more were shipped to Auschwitz to be gassed there. When Typhus broke out in Terezin, hundreds died as a result. "Not so bad" is only skin deep.
The ruse was however, good enough to fool the Red Cross. The Nazis made a propaganda film showing healthy men showering, people gardening, nurses treating old and sick patients, children playing, musicians performing, and residents looking generally content. When the Red Cross inspected Theresienstadt, they found that prisoners had a large shower room, and a room with individual sinks and mirrors; conditions that far exceeded the Geneva conditions for treatment of prisoners in wartime. Based upon the film and inspection, the Red Cross gave the Nazis a favorable review. In reality, the healthy showering men were recent arrivals to the camp, who had yet to show the ill effects of months of a starvation diet. The garden was irrigated with water from a nearby river, where crematorium ashes were dumped. The garden in the film was essentially fertilized with the camp's dead. Children did not live a happy existence at Terezin; they were forced to labor at the camp or were shipped to be "Aaryanized" with German families. People starved to death, and typhus was rampant in the cramped conditions. In fact, the individual sinks in Theresienstadt weren't even hooked up to water!
The smoke and mirrors were enough to prevent the Red Cross from sounding a warning cry about concentration camps, which was one of the numerous reasons that death factories such as Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek could continue as they did. The Red Cross did not apologize for their oversight until the 1970's. How much of the blame for these events do they deserve?
Ultimately, the end result for many of the occupants of Terezin was the same for prisoners at many other concentration camps. What makes it unique is the level of illusion that surrounded the camp. One feels guilty seeing irony in events that occurred there, rather than the pure tragedy of other camps. It begs us all to be extra vigilant as genocidal groups today continue to try and pull the wool over our eyes.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday 2.20, Prague
We stumble off of our overnight train from Krakow with heavy eyes. According to our conductor, newer trains frequently succumb to the harsh Polish winters, so we rode on a much older one. By older, I mean smellier, less roomy, and much more subject to lurching, creaking, and other sorts of things. One group found snow in their room in the morning. We put this behind us, and board a bus to the International School of Prague, the ISP. Here, children of diplomats, ambassadors, and international businessmen study, in English, from pre-K to 12th grade.
We are ushered into their cafeteria, where they have prepared a breakfast for us. Soon students from the school come to greet us, and bring BLS students with them to their classes. I am fortunate enough to spend their first class block talking with the ISP’s chemistry teacher. For the entire block, we sit (over coffee thankfully), and discuss our school climates, our respective philosophies of education, our successes, and our shortcomings as science teachers. We end up having an awful lot in common. It is refreshing and a little bit validating to find an overseas colleague who deals with many of the same struggles that I am dealing with back in the states. Regardless of the country, misconceptions exist, students struggle to master concepts, safety and class size restrictions impede on the learning process, and the work is never done. I hope that we continue our correspondence in the future; it is always good to talk about teaching and get new ideas!
During the second class block of our visit, I sat in on a class entitled “Theory of Knowledge”. The students in this class sat with their desks in a circle, and engaged in a Socratic debate regarding whether Relativism or non-Relativism is closer to absolute truth. The students were prepared, engaged, polite within the debate format, and very thoughtful about their points. After the class began, the teacher sat back and let the debate happen. It was wonderful to watch the students develop their own understandings. Although I don’t think a conclusive agreement was reached, the students were clearly benefiting from the topic and the format. Ultimately the leadership and critical thinking skills that was fostered in the class will transcend the topic of discussion.
At the conclusion of the class, we hustle away from the ISP and travel into old town Prague. An addition to our group is Mr. Crane, a history teacher from ISP who has lived in Prague for the past 20 years. He will be our personal tour guide within the city of Prague. After checking into our hotel, he takes on a tour of downtown Prague. It is a fascinating place. Because it was not destroyed in either of the World Wars, downtown Prague is full of some of the oldest buildings in Europe. Walking down one of its narrow cobblestone streets, one could pass buildings built in Gothic style next to ones built in Cubist style next to buildings built in Art Nuveau style. It seems like every building has a history, and since we are being shuffled around by two architecture buffs, we hear about a lot of it. The walking tour takes much of the afternoon, and after some free time and dinner, we go to sleep in preparation for tomorrow. We will be visiting our final concentration camp of the tour, Terezin/Theresienstadt.
We are ushered into their cafeteria, where they have prepared a breakfast for us. Soon students from the school come to greet us, and bring BLS students with them to their classes. I am fortunate enough to spend their first class block talking with the ISP’s chemistry teacher. For the entire block, we sit (over coffee thankfully), and discuss our school climates, our respective philosophies of education, our successes, and our shortcomings as science teachers. We end up having an awful lot in common. It is refreshing and a little bit validating to find an overseas colleague who deals with many of the same struggles that I am dealing with back in the states. Regardless of the country, misconceptions exist, students struggle to master concepts, safety and class size restrictions impede on the learning process, and the work is never done. I hope that we continue our correspondence in the future; it is always good to talk about teaching and get new ideas!
During the second class block of our visit, I sat in on a class entitled “Theory of Knowledge”. The students in this class sat with their desks in a circle, and engaged in a Socratic debate regarding whether Relativism or non-Relativism is closer to absolute truth. The students were prepared, engaged, polite within the debate format, and very thoughtful about their points. After the class began, the teacher sat back and let the debate happen. It was wonderful to watch the students develop their own understandings. Although I don’t think a conclusive agreement was reached, the students were clearly benefiting from the topic and the format. Ultimately the leadership and critical thinking skills that was fostered in the class will transcend the topic of discussion.
At the conclusion of the class, we hustle away from the ISP and travel into old town Prague. An addition to our group is Mr. Crane, a history teacher from ISP who has lived in Prague for the past 20 years. He will be our personal tour guide within the city of Prague. After checking into our hotel, he takes on a tour of downtown Prague. It is a fascinating place. Because it was not destroyed in either of the World Wars, downtown Prague is full of some of the oldest buildings in Europe. Walking down one of its narrow cobblestone streets, one could pass buildings built in Gothic style next to ones built in Cubist style next to buildings built in Art Nuveau style. It seems like every building has a history, and since we are being shuffled around by two architecture buffs, we hear about a lot of it. The walking tour takes much of the afternoon, and after some free time and dinner, we go to sleep in preparation for tomorrow. We will be visiting our final concentration camp of the tour, Terezin/Theresienstadt.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thursday 2.19, Krakow
Today we toured many sites within the citz of Krakow, including
After we leave the former ghetto, the rest of the day is dedicated to free time in Warsaw. A few of us take a run through the city, while many people shop and tour museums and churches. After dinner, we board a rather poorly kept sleeper train to take us overnight to Prague.
- Kazimierz square
- Remuh synagogue
- Podgorze ghetto
- Museum of the Under the Eagle pharmacz
- Factory of Oskar Shindler
- Former Jewish ghetto wall
After we leave the former ghetto, the rest of the day is dedicated to free time in Warsaw. A few of us take a run through the city, while many people shop and tour museums and churches. After dinner, we board a rather poorly kept sleeper train to take us overnight to Prague.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday 2.18, Krakow, Lublin
We wake up at 6:00 Am, have a very quick breakfast, and get on the bus by 7:30. We have two bus drivers today to manage the 10+ hour round trip to Lublin. On the bus everybody is typically silly and in good sprits. There is a Bon Jovi “Livin on a Prayer” sing along, an unfortunate 45 minute wait for a toilet at a gas station, and a good deal of napping. When we arrive at Majdanek, the mood changes quickly.
Whereas Auschwitz and Birkenau were either systematically dismantled by retreating Nazis or destroyed by advancing Allied forces, Majdanek is essentially as it was when the Nazis left it. The Russians advanced on the camp quickly, and the Nazis essentially picked up and left. As a result, the camp is completely in tact. Auschwitz was like a grim museum; Birkenau was like a stark graveyard. I don’t have a good word to describe Majdanek.
The first thing we saw upon our arrival was a Russian-built open-air memorial for those murdered in the camp. It is a roof covering a pit the size of a 25-meter swimming pool filled with a pile of ashes from the crematorium. Fragments of bone are readily visible in the pile. From there we walk to the site of mass graves. In 1943, tens of thousands of prisoners were murdered here. They were forced to dig a hole, and lie down in the bottom, where they were shot. After that another group was forced to lie on top of them, and were then shot. This went on for almost a full day, until the mass graves were full, leaving mounds above the normal ground level when the dirt was replaced. Beyond the cruel depravity of this act, there is another dimension as well. Houses and businesses in Lublin are only about 200 meters away from these graves. What did the people of Lublin hear? When interviewed after the war, townspeople often stated that they had no idea what was going on. Considering that the only fence surrounding the camp is barbed wire, and the closeness to the town, that seems unlikely. How often do we ignore injustice and brutality in our world, and more so, in our own backyard? Are we turning a deaf ear as the townspeople of Lublin seemed to do?
From the mass grave, we move into the crematorium. A Jewish tour group from France is also in the crematorium, where they hold a prayer service. We wait in the room by the entrance until the finish. As they walk out of the crematorium, with tears streaming down their faces, we walk in. We are much closer to the ovens here. Some of them still have coal and ashes in them. We spend a long time in this room, trying to make sense of it all. We gather ourselves and visit Majdanek’s gas chambers. In one room, you can see the blue stains left by Zyclon B gas and fingernail scratches on the walls.
Majdanek also has warehouses full of artifacts. We walk through one literally brimming with shoes. Supposedly, when Russian troops first opened the door after taking Majdanek, shoes just poured out from behind a door nearly bursting. We then travel to our final stop; an exhibit deducted to the children of Majdanek. The haunting sounds of a Polish children’s lullaby play as we follow the paths of four children brought to the camp, three of whom survived, one of whom was killed. It is an incredibly touching exhibit that resonates powerfully with our group.
We leave the camp with one of the designers of the exhibit who is a member of a local Jewish group from Lublin. His group is committed to maintaining the Jewish community in the town and remembering the victims of the Holocaust. He gives us a tour of his town, and leaves us to have dinner at a local restaurant. We reboard the bus, and take our five-hour bus ride back to Krakow. As the group’s mood re-equilibrates towards a less somber one, I wonder. What can we take from today? This was the emotional equivalent of being bunched in the stomach. There were images and artifacts at Majdanek that almost no on e can be prepared to see until they are there. Does this mean that we will be different people? Will we be ready to stand up against the evils of the world? Has viewing this camp made us all less likely to succumb to group pressures that are unjust? I hope so.
Whereas Auschwitz and Birkenau were either systematically dismantled by retreating Nazis or destroyed by advancing Allied forces, Majdanek is essentially as it was when the Nazis left it. The Russians advanced on the camp quickly, and the Nazis essentially picked up and left. As a result, the camp is completely in tact. Auschwitz was like a grim museum; Birkenau was like a stark graveyard. I don’t have a good word to describe Majdanek.
The first thing we saw upon our arrival was a Russian-built open-air memorial for those murdered in the camp. It is a roof covering a pit the size of a 25-meter swimming pool filled with a pile of ashes from the crematorium. Fragments of bone are readily visible in the pile. From there we walk to the site of mass graves. In 1943, tens of thousands of prisoners were murdered here. They were forced to dig a hole, and lie down in the bottom, where they were shot. After that another group was forced to lie on top of them, and were then shot. This went on for almost a full day, until the mass graves were full, leaving mounds above the normal ground level when the dirt was replaced. Beyond the cruel depravity of this act, there is another dimension as well. Houses and businesses in Lublin are only about 200 meters away from these graves. What did the people of Lublin hear? When interviewed after the war, townspeople often stated that they had no idea what was going on. Considering that the only fence surrounding the camp is barbed wire, and the closeness to the town, that seems unlikely. How often do we ignore injustice and brutality in our world, and more so, in our own backyard? Are we turning a deaf ear as the townspeople of Lublin seemed to do?
From the mass grave, we move into the crematorium. A Jewish tour group from France is also in the crematorium, where they hold a prayer service. We wait in the room by the entrance until the finish. As they walk out of the crematorium, with tears streaming down their faces, we walk in. We are much closer to the ovens here. Some of them still have coal and ashes in them. We spend a long time in this room, trying to make sense of it all. We gather ourselves and visit Majdanek’s gas chambers. In one room, you can see the blue stains left by Zyclon B gas and fingernail scratches on the walls.
Majdanek also has warehouses full of artifacts. We walk through one literally brimming with shoes. Supposedly, when Russian troops first opened the door after taking Majdanek, shoes just poured out from behind a door nearly bursting. We then travel to our final stop; an exhibit deducted to the children of Majdanek. The haunting sounds of a Polish children’s lullaby play as we follow the paths of four children brought to the camp, three of whom survived, one of whom was killed. It is an incredibly touching exhibit that resonates powerfully with our group.
We leave the camp with one of the designers of the exhibit who is a member of a local Jewish group from Lublin. His group is committed to maintaining the Jewish community in the town and remembering the victims of the Holocaust. He gives us a tour of his town, and leaves us to have dinner at a local restaurant. We reboard the bus, and take our five-hour bus ride back to Krakow. As the group’s mood re-equilibrates towards a less somber one, I wonder. What can we take from today? This was the emotional equivalent of being bunched in the stomach. There were images and artifacts at Majdanek that almost no on e can be prepared to see until they are there. Does this mean that we will be different people? Will we be ready to stand up against the evils of the world? Has viewing this camp made us all less likely to succumb to group pressures that are unjust? I hope so.
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