This May I am traveling to Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland to get a first hand look at many important Holocaust sites. It will be a great follow-up resource to the Holocaust course I took this last semester. I went ahead and listed a lot of the information about where we will be traveling and what we will be doing.

When:

• May 11-23

Where:

This is a listing of places and things I will be doing and seeing during the trip. I will post about the cities, hotels and all of that later.

Germany

• Berlin – Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, Schloss Charlottenburg, Ku’ Damm Walking tour, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche

• Sachsenhausen – Concentration Camp (Museum and Memorial)

• Bergen-Belsen – Concentration Camp (Memorial, Documentation Center, Monument)

• NeuenGamme – Concentration Camp (Museum and Memorial)

• Dora-Mittelbau – Concentration Camp (Tunnels and Museum)

• Buchenwald – Concentration Camp (Memorial Center and Memorial)

Czech Republic

• Terezin – Ghetto Museum, Fortress, and Cemetary

• Lidice – Memorial, Museum, and the Park of Peace and Friendship

• Prague – Introductory Walking Tour, Jewish Quarter, Old Jewish Cemetary, Old-new Synagogue, Hracany District, The Loreto, St Vitus Cathedral

• Krivoklat – Castle

Poland

• Krakow – Jewish Quarter Walking tour, Isaac Synagogue (Documentary Film)

• Auschwitz – Auschwitz and Birkenau Death Camps (Museum, Documentary Film, Memorial)

• Warsaw – Royal Castle, Jewish Ghetto Walking Tour (Monumants), Jewish Historical Institute

I am currently in Warsaw, Poland sitting in an internet cafe a mile or so from our hotel. We arrived yesterday 5/12/05 at around 3pm local time. (or 6am pacific time) The plane ride from LAX to Charles de Gaulle airport in France was about 11 hours. The subsequent flight from there to Warsaw, Poland was about 2 hours. When we arrived at our hotel, which I must say is fantastic, we could either sit around until dinner, or go look around the old town with our guide Iain. (He’s Scottish) So a few of us went with him. Here are a couple shots of what we saw.

After our initial excursion, we came back to the hotel for dinner. It consisted of a salad with strawberry vinaigrette (sp?), pea soup, and some chicken in a mushroom sauce. I enjoyed it, although the dressing was a little different.

Luckily, I didn’t get any(enough) sleep on the flight over so I was extremely tired and ready for bed when it was locally time to do so. When we left Los Angeles it was 3:30 pm and we arrived that same time the next day. This is of course because of the 9 hour difference and travel time. Anyways, I went to sleep around 9:30pm.

I have to hurry and write about this day. We walked around the Jewish quarter and in the largest town square in poland here. I have a lot of stories to tell about but, I have to type quickly as I am at a cafe outside Auschwitz-Birkenau. There is a movie starting in a couple minutes so I must get going.

All I can say is that krakow was a short trip and we didn’t do much there.

Today we spent the day riding about 3 hours from Krakow to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I cannot explain everything we saw. I have several pictures, but there were so many things that I do not comprehend. Piles and piles of shoes, hair, glasses, brushed, suitcases. How could this happen. We also stood inside the gas chambers that murdered so many people only 60 years ago.

I will of course, provide more details when I return, I am not at my computer now and all of my pictures and notes are not with me.

Unfortunately, I am sitting in an internet cafe in Brno, Czech Republic after a nice hike through a city I have never been to at night. Luckily I am fairly good with a map and was able to get the six of us there safely. The keyboard and everything on it are goofy and switched around, hopefully I can get us all back to the hotel alright too.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Prague, which from what I hear is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, If not the most beautiful. We will be spending a couple days there, so it will give a good amount of time to look around on our own, as we have been somewhat rushed to date.

Another interesting thing about tonight is that there is evidently a hockey game going on that is fairly important because the whole city is our where we are and cheering for their team.

Well, on the eve on my secondday in Prague, I must say it has been one of the best times in my life. I’m sorry I haven’t uploaded any pictures of Prague yet, but I am using my roommates computer and my pictures are not on it. We have been all over the city though. I am really surprised at how many tourists there are. I don’t like how many there are and I am one, I can only imagine how the actual residents feel. Needless to say, it is the most beautiful city I have ever been to.

We have gone to the Charles Bridge, all throughout the main part of town (the tourist part), Prague Castle, and Loreta. There is so much to see, I wish I could spend much more time here.

This morning we went to Krivoklat Castle, which was a hunting castle for Charles IV. It was really amazing. Basically everything that I have see is amazing because a) it was build so long ago, b) it is so beautiful, and c) nothing in the United States compares to anything here.

Even taking public trams around town instead of driving is enjoyable (and rather quick).

Tomorrow we are making our way to Germany, but first we are going to stop at a city that was entirely destroyed and it’s inhabitants killed because it semi-aided in the assasination of Rudolph Heydrich.

Keep the comments coming, I am really enjoying them.

Lidice is nothing important if you know nothing about WWII or the holocaust. To us on the tour, we know that it is a city that was destroyed in retaliation for the assassination of Rudolph Heydrich. Basically, all ov the citys men were killed, and the women and children were sent to concentration camps or extermination camps. The city was completely razed so that all that now remains are a couple foundations. Out of all the memorials so far, this one touched me the most. I think it was the monument to the children that were killed hit the deepest. It is really difficult to put into words the things I have seen, I hope a new light is shed upon WWII and especially the holocaust.

We also visited Terezinstadt, which was a camp for political prisoners as well as Jews. While this was not specifically an extermination camp, like all of the others, thousands of people perished there.

This was all on our way out of Prague to Chemnitz, Germany.

After an early rise we headed out to Buchenwald; a concentration camp located in Germany. I will not go into any details about this camp.

We also made our way to Dora-Mittelbau which was a camp built to produce V-2 Rockets. Of course, slave labor was used in all aspects of construction. The interesting thing about this camp is the fact that the factory itself if underground in a complex dug otu of rock. We were unable to go inside because there were no guides available today.

Tonight we made our way to downtown Hannover via train. I was really reluctant to go, but Chris convinced me. The reason for my reluctance was because for the first time I was majorly disoriented. Anyways, Chris, Robyn, Roxy, and myself went and had some coffee in a nice cafe.