Albion College Holocaust Studies Service Learning Project

The stone I placed on the bottom left-hand corner of the first stone I uncovered Today was our last day in the cemetery which was very bittersweet. We worked for about two hours then we stopped and said goodbye. Judaism has a tradition where they leave stones on a gravestone in remembrance of that person, so our faculty gathered a bag of stones, and we were able to take a few and place them where we wanted. I chose to leave mine three stones on the first headstone I found, the headstone of the professor from the second day, and the last stone I worked to uncover. My experience over the two and a half days that we were able to work at the cemetery is difficult to put into words. I was overwhelmed with so many different emotions, but overall, I felt at peace and honored to be a part of what I was able to contribute to the relatively small area we were working on. Our field on our last day! The first day was impactful because we uncovered an absurd number of headstone...

TJ Maxx in the mall Today we were rained out of the cemetery, which was very sad, but it allowed for us to have a big chunk of free time to do what we wanted. I took advantage of the later morning and slept in a little bit, but made sure that I was at breakfast by 8:30. After breakfast, I went with a few girls to the Magnolia Park Mall. To get there, we had to be adults and figure out the Tram on our own, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We spent about two hours there walking around and I bought two shirts! We came back to the hotel a little bit before 12 and learned that the Synagogue that we were supposed to tour had lost power, so we weren't able to tour it today and we aren't able to attend the Shabbat dinner that we were supposed to have tomorrow. The Old Jewish Cemetery We had a 4-hour walking tour around Wroclaw which was very interesting. We walked, took a bus, and a tram, all around Wroclaw to see different Jewish sites. Our tour guide was ...

Me in the process of pulling a sapling Today was very similar to yesterday. We woke up and went to the cemetery, came back and relaxed for a little bit, and then went to dinner (only this time as a group). The weather was much warmer today than it was the past two days which was nice. The main focus of today's work in the cemetery was more of the groundwork, so I spent the vast majority of my time pulling saplings (oak and maple) and picking up branches, with the occasional spotting of a headstone or plot that I was able to uncover. As I was working, I started thinking about the amount of time and effort I was putting into finding these saplings and whether my time would be better spent clearing the brush and looking for more covered gravesites. It wasn't until one of our faculty said that it's the trees that do a lot of the damage in the cemetery because the roots will push the stones up or cause them to break completely that I realized this simple job is just as impor...

After a good nights rest, a yummy breakfast, and some coffee, we were off to our first day working at the cemetery. To get there, we had about a 7-minute walk to a tram station, where we rode for probably 15 minutes, then a short walk to the entrance. The tram is a popular form of transportation in Poland and is known for being very efficient. I was able to sit and observe the buildings and cars that drove by. All except one of the cars that I have seen have a manual shift, which was surprising to me because, in the States, most of ours are automatic. Our Plot before we started working on it We got to the cemetery and it was amazing. It's a huge area with huge trees. The front of the cemetery has a lot of new, polish catholic styled gravestones, whereas toward the middle and back was more german influenced headstones. While we waiting for the groundskeeper, Dr. WcWhirter gave us a quick tour of the fields. A German restoration group that works to restore Jewish cemeteri...

Wroclaw Cathedral It's 7:30 pm in Poland, and finally, I am able to lay down and get some sleep! It was a crazy travel day, with one very close-called connection flight. We  arrived in Wroclaw around 10:15 this morning (about 4  am in Detroit) and settled into our rooms by 11:45. We were given a quick tour of how to get to the Ryneck (City Square ),  then let loose to explore! Wroclaw is a very cool area with a lot of restaurants, stone roads and walkways, and tons of churches. I had  pierogies  for lunch at a traditional Polish restaurant, then followed along with a group to explore Wroclaw beyond the square. We saw the River Oder,  a little bit of the University of Wroclaw campus, and the restored Wroclaw Cathedral which was very badly damaged during WWII. After those few hours of exploring, I finally went back to the hotel to relax and take a short nap. We were allowed dinner on our own as well, so I went to a Kebab shop which was very good! T...

   Thank you for visiting this blog dedicated to the trip I will be taking in May to Wroclaw, Poland.  This Holocaust Studies Service Learning Project is an opportunity offered to students by Albion College.  While on this trip I will learn more about the Holocaust and work to restore a severely neglected historic Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw. At the end of my week of service, I will visit the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. I also chose to extend my trip by three days in order to visit the Warsaw Ghetto. I am more than excited about this trip, hence me posting about it five months prior! I may post a few more times while taking the course leading up to the trip as well as during the trip! Thank you so much for your support! Here's a little bit about me:  I am a rising Junior at Albion College.  I am a chemistry major and biology minor with the intention of continuing my education into graduate research.  I am a member of the...