Poland

Over fall break I visited Poland on a study trip. We started our trip flying out Friday Oct 13 and getting in just in time for the first of many polish dinners. Saturday was a very busy day with a walking tour of Warsaw lead by our tour guide Adrian. There we visited various parts of the Jewish Ghetto and saw some of the few remaining buildings from that era that the Nazi’s were not able to burn down. Unfortunately most of those buildings are set to be torn down soon due to structural instability and this part of history will be lost. We also visited the Uprising Museum which was full of cool multi media exhibits explaining the history of the second Warsaw uprising. We ended the day with a movie introduction and dinner hosted by the man who organized the symposium we would be attending in the next days to talk about human rights and the Solidarity movement. Sunday we took a train to Torun where the symposium would be hosted at the Nicolaus Copernicus University. Torun was a lovely little town with beautiful fall weather and an incredible chance to learn about a history I had never thought about before. Monday we traveled to Gdansk to visit the European Solidarity Center, yet another incredible multi media museum that was able to transport me to a time and place I never knew existed. There I was able to plant my feet in history and redefine what solidarity meant to me. One of the most impactful exhibits was a series of walls where the 10 requests of the dock workers who went on strike in multiple different languages. It was there where I was able to see just how important my commitment to social justice was and how valuable my ability to speak multiple languages is. From there we traveled to Krakow where we made a day trip to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Our guide for the concentration death camps expertly lead us through the exhibits and ruins. There I was shook to my core with the facts of history and devastated to see the atrocity of our past. It became a place that was very difficult to see, the stairs were warped from the years of people walking on them, a room full of human hair that was to be sold for 50 vennings per kilo, and empty cans of zyklon B were all on display and made this one of the most challenging things I have faced. Visiting the death site of nearly 1.1 million people quickly became a place that I firmly believe everyone who is able to should visit. That night we concluded our study trip with a dinner and good company as we prepared to part ways for the rest of our fall break.