Third Pre-Trip Session 02/20/14

          We are roughly two months away from our departure date and we just completed our third pre-trip session.  To start off the meeting, we read statements and decided if we agreed or disagreed with them.  For example, one of the statements was, “Any criticism of the State of Israel today is antisemetic.”  Most, if not all of us, disagreed with that statement because for instance, a criticism of the Israeli government is not antisemetic.  It is not attacking the Jewish religion; it is commenting on the way the Israeli government operates.

            Al Miller led the second half of the meeting.  He grew up in Germany and was there during the Holocaust, but does not consider himself a survivor because he was never sent to a camp.  He fled Germany and eventually came to the United States, but had he stayed just a few more years, his fate would be much different.  He shared many interesting things with us about Germany.  My favorite story was when Berlin held the 1936 Olympics.  Jesse Owens won many gold medals, but Hitler refused to shake Jesse’s hand because he was black.  Now, many years letter, there is a street in Berlin named Jesse Owens Street.  Al joked, “Hitler would roll over in his grave if he knew.”  We are all realizing and appreciating how special it is to have speakers, like Al Miller and Stephanie Marks, to tell us how things were first hand.

Second Pre-Trip Session 02/06/14

            We began our second pre-trip session by selecting a picture that we resonate with from a spread of black and white photographs of people before the Holocaust.  We each had different reasons for choosing the picture we did, which shows how we all can connect and relate to people affected by the Holocaust in our own unique ways.  Most of us were curious and interested in the fates of the people presented in the pictures.  Some of the pictures displayed young children having fun and enjoying being innocent before the Nazis invaded.

            During the next part of our session, we learned more in depth about the Holocaust and genocide.  We watched a very informative video that put into perspective the amount of camps and Nazi territory that consumed much of Europe.  We also learned the answer to one of the most common questions asked about the Holocaust or any genocide: “how could it have happened?”  The answer resides in The Eight Stages of Genocide, which include classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.  This shows how much effort and local community support has to go into the making of a genocide.

            We concluded our session with Holocaust survivor Stephanie Marks.  She traveled over 7,500 miles through five countries and two continents in the span of one year to escape the Nazis! Stephanie was born in Poland so it was very interesting to hear her story, since we are visiting there soon.  The group’s favorite anecdote was when Stephanie and her mother tricked Heinrich Himmler into letting their family leave the country.  We are all very anxious and excited for our trip to Poland and Israel and to see first hand what Stephanie described.

Exactly 11 weeks until we leave on the March! Time is flying by!