Thoughts from a Conversation (Lauren) – Poland Personally 2017
By: Lauren Zabelsky The idea behind the Jewish Culture Festival, the JCC in Krakow and listening to the people that work there is essentially to resonate with us as visitors that Jewish culture in Poland is not lost. And I think that is true —you’ve heard of the saying, ‘living well is the best revenge?’ That just […]
Auschwitz (Meredith) – Poland Personally 2017 Students
By: Meredith Warden While learning about the Holocaust in many of the history classes I’ve taken over the years, I understood that millions of people were murdered. However, for me, it was difficult to actually conceptualize and fully process this massive amount of deaths. But, by being at Auschwitz, being at the site where those […]
Auschwitz (Ben) – Poland Personally 2017 Students
By: Ben Brandeis Faces stare. The eyes follow. They look into your soul with bleak faces and lost hope. These are the faces of the dead which line the corridors of a building at Auschwitz. They are all shaven and tired looking as if they had been kept awake for weeks by haunting nightmares. These […]
Auschwitz (Kate) – Poland Personally 2017 Students
By: Kate Chaillet “It’s not six plus zero plus zero, it’s one plus one plus one.” This simple and admittedly obvious statement, spoken by our tour guide at Auschwitz, profoundly hit home for me. I had woken up that morning prepared to be disturbed, scared, broken-hearted, and a number of other painful adjectives that can only […]
Dear Mr. Lite – Poland Personally 2017
Dear Mr Lite, You probably don’t remember me but I remember you. Going to your store on Sundays was a treat for me. Your store was always our last stop in the wholesale houses we frequented for Grandpa’s store. Your happy smile and gentle words always offered a pleasant ending to a hectic day. We […]
Auschwitz (Tom) – Poland Personally 2017
By: Thomas Ralston The trip to Auschwitz on Friday was truly transforming. I was amazed by the enormity of the space. As our group traveled through the entrance and into and through the camp, I kept looking back towards where we had been. Avi had told us that Auschwitz was like a city, and it […]
Auschwitz (Pamala) – Poland Personally 2017
By: Pamala Learn There are so many moments that stick in my mind from this trip. Moments that have lodged themselves in my psyche. Moments that have changed me. There will not be another time when I feel like there is no way out or as if I hurt for something. The picture on the […]
Auschwitz (John) – Poland Personally 2017
By: John Weigel It was the many markers that made the deepest impression on me. On Friday, June 30th, our CWB tour group visited the former death camp of Birkenau and the concentration camp of Auschwitz I. At Birkenau, there is an abstract sculpture many yards long, located between the ruins of two sets of gas […]
Kielce (Ross) – Poland Personally 2017 Students
By: Ross Tedder It was a warm, muggy evening. We had just spent about an hour traveling to Kielce from Starachowice. Earlier, there was a lot on my mind concerning some of the conversations I had with some of the Polish students in Starachowice, but by the time we arrived in the city I was […]