holocaust study tour 2012

Holocaust Study Tour

Making History

2012March 24th - April 7th

Holocaust Study Tour 2012

Holocaust Study Tour Donors 2012New Milford High School DonorsMarcia and Joseph BogradLawrence CohenJudith and Robert CookCurtis Circulation Company, LLCDoherty Enterprises, Inc. – Applebees RestaurantsAlthea DuerstenRonnie and Martin EisenSusan and Julius EisenFogarty and HaraJoan and Egon FrommGraphic Builders, Inc.In Memory of Howard G. SchneiderInserra Supermarkets, Inc.Murray KuschnerBarbara and Fred LaferJonathan MannNew Milford Jewish Community CenterNew Milford PBANew Milford Education Association (NJEA)Martin Perlman and Jo-Ann HassanBarnett RukinEllen and Harold SchiffTemple Avodat ShalomTemple Beth Am Joseph Gotthelf FundThe Arthur and Eileen Newman Family FoundationThe Burton G. and Anne C. Greenblatt FoundationThe Henry and Marilyn Taub FoundationThe Jewish War VeteransBarron S. WallMimi WeisShirley and Solomon WeissUnited Water, Inc.Arthur AbramsDana AufieroVictoria and Keith BachmannCelia and Sheldon BassIda and Gary BorerRobert BorteckLillian and Isaac BraudeOlivia BurtenElizabeth and Robert ChesterSusan and Howard CohnLeanne and Raymond CottiersJames CourterVivian DavisLaura and David EisenDavid Elliot

Joanne and Michael FalkDamon FellmanLawrence ForsterIrene FrankPaula GellisEllen and Ralph GerberBarbara and Robert GrodskyMorris I. GrossmanSheppard GuryanIlse HellerBernice and Leon JaffeMarilyn and Elihu KatzmanSandra KaufmanA.B. and L.G. KesslerLinda KeesingAnnette and Michel KirszrotJoel KobertEdith and Robert LevineClaire MannJoan and Brian McCannEstelle MeislichHanns Martin MerzbachSarah and David NanusThe Piasevoli FamilyDana and Frederic RubinPhyliss RubinPeggy SaslowSteven SaslowLisa SchiffDiana and Ervin SchoenblumThe Silver FamilyCarolyn SmithSteven E. SomeJudith and David SolomonStephen TencerRita and Bert ToronKaren VicariBella ViezelThomas WagnerHarriet and Bernard WeinbergArden WeinsteinWest Essex Regional School DistrictDavid WilsonEileen and Donald Wolmer

We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their gracious support.Without their continued generosity this program would not realize its full potential.

A special thanks to the following institutions for their continued support and guidance:

The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust EducationThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel

Funding for this publication was made possible by the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) Pride in Education Grants program. The generous and continued support by NJEA has allowed

the educational outreach of this program to flourish.

Bishop O’Dowd High School Donors

Midland Park High School Donors

Saint Thomas Aquinas High School Donors

Trsice Memorial DonorsCharles A. Sullivan Charitable Foundation

The Conner FamilyThe Piasevoli FamilyThe Kaprielian FamilyThe New Milford High School Student CouncilSaint Thomas Aquinas High School Bishop O’Dowd High School

AnonymousChristine MerlettoMichael FinnertyMichael DiPiazza – Koch MonumentsInserra Supermarkets, Inc.Midland Park PBA

Betty BuettnerRabbi Judah Dardik, Beth Jacob CongregationNorma HeathHolocaust Center, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San FranciscoGeoffrey and Barbara KotinRabbi Andrew Straus, First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland, Temple SinaiHolocaust Center, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San Fransisco

Contents

14Benjamin Ryan

“...make the history of my own life...”

16 Aidan Merris“Making history make sense”

18 Alyssa Solonkovich“...making history have meaning”

20 Amanda DeCarlo

“...making history acknowledge its pain”

22 Samantha Flores

“...making the absence of their history.....”

24 Devanni Guzman

“...making history prevent the errors of humanity...”

26 Sarah Firestone

“...making history every day that he continues to live.”

28 Kristina Damiano

“...to make an impact with his individual Holocaust history...”

30Gabrielle Van Hoet

“...make history teach...even in the present.”

32 Alyssa Loonam

“...made history by accepting...and educating”

34 Callie Prince

“and that the history of their lives was not ultimately made to be cut short.”

36Hannah Carmichael“...make history recognize...”

38Vanessa Monserrat

“...people who could have

dreamed and made history”

12 Flori Bako“to...remake my own history.”

10Alexandra ZapruderAuthor’s Message

8 Colleen TambuscioJune ChangLisa BaumanBonnie Sussman

Leading

The students who participated in

the Holocaust Study Tour 2012

remember and honor the victims

of Nazi persecution by reflecting

upon their experiences visiting

historical sites in Germany, Czech

Republic, and Poland. New Milford

High School students in partnership

with Midland Park High School,

Midland Park, New Jersey; Saint

Thomas Aquinas High School, Overland

Park, Kansas; and Bishop O’Dowd

High School, Oakland, California,

present the following reflections

that convey the hearts and

minds of this year’s participants.

Project Coordinators:Colleen Tambuscio

New Milford, New JerseyJune Chang

Midland Park, New JerseyLisa Bauman

Overland Park, KansasBonnie Sussman

Oakland, California


40 Allison Nativo

“Making history become lessons”

42Tyler Ryan

“...make our history as twin brothers...”

44Gabrielle Liebermann

“...making the history of

this area come to life...”

46Hannah Smith

“Sometimes we cannot make history answer our questions.”

48Megan Lucas

“I will make history by shining a light...”

50Trsice & Olomouc

52Shalmi Barmore

54Pavel Stransky

56Our Guides

MAKING HISTORYAs teachers, we study history. We teach history. We

don’t think of ourselves as making history. However,

during our Holocaust Study Tour of 2012 we did just

that: we made history.

Once again we began in Berlin, Germany meeting our

incredible guide and mentor, Mr. Shalmi Barmore.

Through his expertise, Mr. Barmore taught the

fundamentals of German history and the rise of the

Nazi party. As always, students and teachers alike

learned immeasurable amounts from his infinite

wisdom.

Author Alexandra Zapruder joined us in Prague, Czech

Republic where she immediately became part of our

“family” and brought the study of Holocaust history

to a new level for all of us. After Mr. Barmore led

us through the Jewish quarter and taught about the

history of the Jewish community in Prague, we had

a roundtable discussion with Ms. Zapruder, in which

she read us passages from Otto Wolf’s diary. Our

students asked questions and discussed the meaning

of the diary passages. We knew we were involved in

something extraordinary: how many students in the

United States have the opportunity to sit down and

discuss a book they have read in class with the

author? This was just one of the many highlights

of this year’s Holocaust Study Tour.

Each year Holocaust survivor Pavel Stransky

inspires us with his story when he joins us in

Prague and takes us to Theresienstadt, where he

had worked as a teacher during the Holocaust,

and where he married his girlfriend Vera in

order to stay together when they were sent to

Auschwitz. For the entire day our students asked

him questions, and took so much from his words

as we visited the Theresienstadt ghetto and

prison. Pavel’s story of survival, which he calls

his “Holocaust love story,” means so much to us

because so well do we come to know this kind,

sweet man who experienced this horrible history.

In Olomouc, Czech Republic our students met

another admirable Holocaust survivor, Milos

Dobry. Milos shared his experiences in Auschwitz-

Birkenau where he had told the Nazi guards he

was a cook in order to be assigned a job in the

kitchen. Years later in the 1990’s, Milos was

responsible for initiating the process with Yad


MAKING HISTORYVashem to list the rescuers in Trsice, Czech Republic

as “Righteous Among Nations,” introduced us to the

living rescuers of the Wolf family and led us to the

hideouts in the forest of Trsice four years ago. Milos’

passion and determination shine through and inspire

us. Despite the horrors he experienced in Auschwitz,

he documented history through Yad Vashem, and

thanks to him, there stands today a memorial in the

woods of Trsice.

Because of our

knowledgeable guide,

Shalmi Barmore, each

year we experience new

aspects of the history of the Holocaust. This year

we visited the town of Rabka, Poland, a Jewish shtetl

once used as a convalescent area due to the clean

mountain air. During the Holocaust, Rabka had been

used by the Nazis as a site for terror. From 1942-1944

the Nazis used the convent there as a training center

for Gestapo interrogation techniques. Nazis used

Jews from the town as guinea pigs in torture training,

and threw their dead bodies outside the convent in

a heap, unburied. The nuns of the convent, at their

own peril, somehow took the bodies up the hillside

into the woods and properly buried the dead Jews.

Basically undocumented, this new historical knowledge

had quite an impact on us all.

Each year we learn more, and discover new aspects of

the history of the Holocaust. After two intense weeks

of experiential learning that is the Holocaust Study

Tour, our students then go back to their communities

in New Jersey, California, and Kansas. From the

outside, friends and

family would never know

the historical knowledge

of the Holocaust that they

now possess. They will be the

markers of memory who tell the stories of Otto Wolf,

Pavel Stransky and Milos Dobry. Through their words

and their actions these students are now the living

history; this is the goal of the program.

Knowledge is power and because these students were

part of the Holocaust Study Tour, they now have both

the knowledge and the power to be teachers. Teachers

study history. Teachers teach history. These new

teachers will make the history of the world different.

“Through their words and their actions these students are now the living history; this is the goal of the program.”

Colleen Tambuscio June Chang Lisa Bauman Bonnie Sussman


I am not sure what I expected when I said I

would join the Holocaust Study Tour in 2012.

I met Colleen, Bonnie, and Lisa more than a

decade ago, and I have heard about the trip for

years. But whatever I thought, nothing could

prepare me for traveling with these exceptional

teachers who provide a historically sound and

emotionally safe experience for a group of

dedicated students who—as I learned—make up

the heart and soul of the endeavor.

The trip was, for me, about firsts and about

returns. A return to Prague—much changed

since I visited as a college student in 1990, just

months after the Velvet Revolution, and yet still

recognizable as the “fairy tale in stone” that

diarist Petr Ginz described. A first journey to

Theresienstadt, the ghetto-camp that I have

studied and written about but had, until the

trip, never visited—a place where three of the

diarists in Salvaged Pages lived and wrote. A

return to the story of Otto Wolf, whose diary

I read and re-read, edited, and struggled to

understand and illuminate in Salvaged Pages.

A first visit to Olomouc, Czech Republic, the

city of his birth and early life; to Trsice, Czech

Republic, where he and his family were hidden;

to Zakrov, Czech Republic, where he was caught

ZapruderAlexandra

and murdered.

I did not anticipate the effect of traveling

with students, seeing the sites of this history

through younger eyes, being challenged by new

questions, and most of all, bonding through

shared experience, emotion, and learning. For

me, the most moving part of the trip took place

when we traveled to Trsice to dedicate the

memorial to the Wolf family and the inhabitants

of the village who collectively sheltered them.

Long after I returned home, I continued to recall

the memory of walking into the forest—a column

of Czech locals, press, teachers, and students—

symbolically leaving our ordinary lives behind for a

few hours to enter the past, to inhabit the reality

of a family struggling to survive, to consider the

ordinary people challenged to risk their lives

for the sake of another’s humanity. There we

saw the rudimentary holes in the ground where

the Wolf family hid for shelter and which today

serve as a sober backdrop to the beautiful grey

granite marker bearing the memorial words. We

stood in small groups in a wide, peaceful clearing,

surrounded on all sides by a cathedral of tall, slim

evergreens, the scent of pine needles in the air,

and considered the accomplishment of those

who created this memorial and the passage

of time that made it possible. I looked at the


faces of the students—serious, contemplative,

awed, reflective—and felt again the ineffable,

incalculable importance of shared experience;

of being in the physical spaces where history

unfolded; and of the affection, trust and lasting

memory that such experiences engender.

The single most moving moment for me that

day was hearing two Czech boy scouts reading

entries aloud from Otto’s diary in his native

tongue. I could not understand the words and I

didn’t know which entries they were. The sounds

were alien to me and they echoed through

the silent space of the clearing. But for me, it

was yet another moment of return. It was the

return of Otto’s words to the place where he

wrote them, the restoration of his dignity and

individuality in a way that only such a moment

could accomplish. He did not live to see his words

published in Czech and in English; he did not live

to see Eva Vavrecka, who would have been his

niece, standing in for his family; he did not live

to see Colleen Tambuscio, an American teacher

commit herself to his memory and his story;

he did not live to see the once-deserted hiding

place restored, filled not only with media, with

Czech government officials, with members of the

remnants of the Jewish community, but most of

all, with Czech boy scouts and American students

who were drawn to that place to bear in mind a

family they had never met. And yet, it happened.

We stood together and we remembered. It is a

moment that I will never forget.


BakoFlori

New Milford High School


How could a train station that looks like any

other have such a powerful effect on me as

I walked by?

Walking through Grunewald train station

in Berlin, I felt an overwhelming feeling of

confusion and despair. I could not understand

how a train station could be used to collect

and deport Jews. When I think of a train,

so many beautiful things come to mind such

as new beginnings and peaceful journeys.

The idea that one is embarking on a journey

with loved ones, or even alone, seems

serene. Unfortunately, for the Jews, this

was not the case. As soon as they arrived at

Grunewald they were sent to concentration

camps and death camps. When in the camps

they were either sent to immediate death

or forced to work. For thousands deported

from Grunewald, theirs was not a journey of

promise.

I relate the act of riding a train to the future.

By getting on a train, I would be moving

forward to new experiences and a new

life. Moving forward is a reoccurring theme

“to ... remake my own history.”in my life. I believe that no matter what

obstacles I encounter, to overcome them

is vital. Even if I have made mistakes, a

new journey means facing those mistakes

and correcting them. I have to have

faith in my future and to have faith in

the ability to start over if need be. This

is why Grunewald train station had such

an impact on me. I could not grasp that

for so many people during the Holocaust

getting on a train did not mean new

beginnings. It meant the end.

This trip has taught me that my own

journey has just begun. Starting over and

moving forward is what makes us stronger

and better versions of ourselves. If people

never let go of what is needed to in order

to move forward, we will never meet the

future. The victims of Grunewald did not

have that same opportunity of moving

forward to a life of new beginnings,

success, and happiness, but I do. I will not

waste any opportunities to make, or re-

make, my own history.


Benjamin RyanMidland Park High School


“...make the history of my own life...”


We waited in a small alleyway in front of a

wooden door. The most meaningful building to

me stood there, hidden between other identical

buildings. We walked up a steep staircase into a

small white waiting room with very few pictures

or clues of the stories that waited inside. At that

time I did not realize the impact this workshop

would have on me. Although I tried to keep an

open mind, I thought that I would experience

the same feelings I had from the museums and

memorials we had previously visited: feelings

of the historical importance but not feelings

of emotional importance. It may seem hard

to believe, but I really did not have any great

emotional feelings while visiting the Holocaust

Memorial and the Topography of Terror. At

these places I saw terrorizing pictures, read

horrific stories and found them truly disturbing,

but it was only as if I was in a life size textbook

walking from room to room filled with artifacts

of the Holocaust. In front of this wooden door,

however, I felt different: our group was about

to enter the first historical memorial of the

trip, Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind also

referred to as Otto Weidt’s “Hidden Workshop.”

This was the place that would leave an imprint

on my memory that will never be erased.

As we followed the tour guide into the actual

workroom where brooms and brushes were

made, I nearly stopped walking when I stood in

front of the original tarnished wooden floor. I

almost felt as if I should not walk across this

“hallowed” ground of the room where blind and

deaf workers were kept “hidden” from certain

death at the hands of the Nazis. Here I was

walking in their same footsteps, in the original

rooms, exactly on the same floors. This was not

just a “building” anymore; I could now picture

the struggles of the workers who had not only

had to fear being blind or deaf, but who also

had the constant fear of being put to death for

having those very disabilities.

Reflecting back on this moment of the trip, I

realize that it created an open mind within

me that would need to be kept open, not just

during the trip, but from this point on in my

own life. Otto Weidt’s workshop was a place

where people were valued and protected and,

as a result, Otto made these people’s histories

different. I can make my own history different

as well by continuing to live with an open mind

and by not judging others. Perhaps this will make

the history of my own life go in a direction I had

never thought possible.

MerrisAidan

Bishop O’Dowd High School


Facing the reality of the Holocaust is a

difficult task; understanding why such a

calamity was allowed to occur and knowing

who exactly murdered millions of people is

even harder. Throughout my trip in Europe, I

constantly asked myself many questions, but

one that consumed me then and still does

today, is “Who were the real perpetrators

behind Hitler’s Holocaust?” A simple answer

would appear to be the Nazis, but is the

answer so simple?

When we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, I not

only felt sick to my stomach, I felt a strong

desire to escape; to free myself from the

barbed wire and to never return. I remained,

however, and continued to ask myself who

directly killed millions and millions of people.

I was desperate to find the answer, to

comprehend the incomprehensible and to

come to a better understanding of who

murdered these people.

At Auschwitz, Mr. Barmore told our group

of the train driver’s role in transporting

Jews into Auschwitz and what exactly they

did. Many conductors claimed that they

did not kill anyone, but if it were not for

their role, millions of Jews would never have

reached and entered the death camps and

concentration camps. If it were not for the

person who opened the train doors, the

“Making history make sense”Jews would never have gotten out and walked

to selection. If it were not for the Nazi soldier

in command of the selection, or Dr. Mengele,

the Jews would not have been “herded off”

to perish in the gas chambers. So who exactly

murdered millions of innocent “undesirables”

throughout Europe during the Holocaust?

Many, including myself, might blame Adolf

Hitler, the man behind all of the misery

and death during one of history’s darkest

times. The Holocaust probably would never

have happened were it not for Hitler, for he

definitely was responsible for its systemic

and widespread reach. But then again, Hitler

never directly killed anyone. Another answer

might be the SS officer who dumped the

Zyklon B crystals into the vents of the gas

chambers, which killed hundreds of people

within 20 minutes. A third perpetrator of

the Holocaust could have been some of the

prisoners themselves who were forced to

burn the victims, forever “removing” them

from the world.

Making history make sense would mean finding

one single answer as to who is responsible for

the murder of six million Jews and millions of

other victims during the Holocaust. Perhaps

not knowing is just one more incomprehensible

part of this tragedy.


Alyssa

New Milford High SchoolSolonkovich


During the Holocaust trip, our group was

fortunate and privileged to meet the

prestigious author, Alexandra Zapruder. She

has edited and compiled many diaries from

children of the Holocaust, allowing us to

become more familiar with the experiences

of these children. Included in her work,

Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of

the Holocaust, are stories that recount a life

being lived in a ghetto, a child seeing family

members leave to go to their deaths, Jews

forced into hiding and countless others.

The ages of the diarists range from twelve

to twenty-two, and while some of these

child “authors” survived, many of them also

perished during the time of the Holocaust.

A diary written by a young boy named

Otto Wolf, from the small town of Trsice

in Czech Republic, wrote of his time spent

hiding in a small ditch in the woods. With him

hid his family including his mother, father

and sister. With the help of several Trsice

“...making history have meaning”

families, several members of Otto’s family

were able to survive. Otto himself, however,

was killed in a roundup of Jews by the Nazis.

After Otto was burned in a farm house with

others captured, Otto’s sister Lici, was able

to continue writing in his diary.

Otto Wolf’s diary, made known to us

through our reading of Salvaged Pages,

gave us, and the world, the knowledge

of the Wolf family’s very courageous and

important story. Because of knowledge of

the Wolf’s experience during the Holocaust,

this year our Study Tour 2012 group

completed the memorial site to the Wolf

family. We would have been unable to mark

the memorial in the forest and unable to

allow the hideouts to become a historical

site, had it not been for this courageous

young man’s diary, its inclusion in Salvaged

Pages and the commitment to making

history have meaning in a small town in

present-day Czech Republic.


DeCarloAmanda



The Nazi massacre of the men, women,

and children in the town of Lidice, Czech

Republic, was meant to avenge the death of

German SS Officer Reinhard Heydrich. Strict

orders were given to destroy any village that

may have had anything to do with Heydrich’s

death and these orders were thoroughly

carried out. Despite there being no solid

evidence of Lidice being involved in the

assassination, 173 men were shot on the spot,

all of the women were sent to Ravensbruck

concentration camp and eighty two of the

105 children under the age of sixteen were

taken from their mothers and sent to their

deaths in gas vans—the remaining children

were sent to live with German families with

the intent of “Germanizing” them.

Like many other towns during the time of

the Holocaust, Lidice was completely burned

to the ground, destroyed in every way with

no trace of the village remaining. The Nazis

bragged about this brutality, exposing this

horror to the world and showing off how

they could and would do anything they

wanted to do. In the 1980’s, the Czech

Republic acknowledged what had happened

by creating a memorial statue making sure

that the victims of Lidice would not only be

honored, but also remembered.

“...making history acknowledge its pain”

On the day our group visited the memorial, we

stared at the sculpted faces of the children;

the wet and gloomy weather reflected our

moods. Eighty two bronze faces depicting the

children who were murdered stared back at

us, their fright and sadness palpable. It began

raining, making it look as if the children were

crying. This in turn made me break down

for the first time in a long time. Lidice is

just another example of how the Nazis were

ruthless and cruel. In my eyes, some humanity

was restored when immediate action was

taken to show how strongly people felt

against the Nazi actions. Towns everywhere

were renamed after Lidice and once the war

ended, a new village was built 300 meters

away. A beautiful rose garden was also planted

in memory of those who had lost their lives.

By doing the right thing these people helped

lighten this dark spot in history and showed

that although events can never be altered,

they can be honored in such a way that helps

people cope by making history acknowledge its

pain. Those who contributed to making sure

the story of Lidice would never be forgotten

show that great tragedies can bring the best

out of humanity.


FloresSamantha



The Pinkas Synagogue, located in Prague, is

a memorial to the many Jews from Prague,

Czech Republic and several surrounding

towns who were murdered during the

Holocaust. The interior of the synagogue

was designed by painters Václav Boštík and

Jirí John between 1954 and 1959. After

remaining closed for a long period of

time in 1968, the building was eventually

reconstructed. Following the collapse of the

Communist regime, a project was launched

to renovate the memorial, which reopened in

1996. The names of the victims, along with

their dates of birth and death, written on

the walls of the synagogue were compiled

after the war from transport papers,

registration lists, and survivor’s accounts.

The victims’ dates of death are unknown

so the dates of deportation to the ghettos

and extermination camps are stated instead.

The victims’ names are arranged according

to the towns and villages where they

were living prior to deportation or arrest

and are presented in alphabetical order.

This memorial is there to serve as both a

“tombstone” and an epitaph for those whose

names are inscribed upon it.

As I entered the synagogue I realized that

every inch of the walls was covered with

“...making the absence of their history...”

names. The names were not in a large

sized font and there was not much room

in between the names. Reading all of these

names upset me; these people had been

innocent—persecuted for merely being

Jewish. I found myself calculating the ages

of each person I discovered, and realized

more than once that I had stumbled upon

an infant’s name; it made me cringe. I knew

one story from one of the names written on

one of the walls. On the second floor of the

synagogue I located the name: Otto Wolf.

To me, this name held certain significance

thanks to the work of Ms. Zapruder, the

author of Salvaged Pages which we had

studied in class back in New Jersey. But

seeing the other names on the walls beside

Otto’s made me wonder about the fate of

each person. To me, each name at Pinkas

represents more than just 80,000 names—it

represents 80,000 histories lost.

Visiting Pinkas Synagogue made me realize

how important each of us in the world are.

The artists who painstakingly inscribed the

names of the lost Jews on the walls of the

Pinkas Synagogue knew this. By visiting this

synagogue and paying tribute to the 80,000

victims, we are making the absence of their

history mean something.


GuzmanDevanni



On our group’s first day in Berlin, Germany,

one memorial that impacted me was a

playground. On the playground was a statue

that commemorated the Holocaust. Olaf,

our guide, said a synagogue was burned

and years later a playground had been built

over it. He asked if knowing there had once

been a synagogue on the grounds, we would

allow our children to play there. Instantly, my

answer was no. I would not let my children

play there because I felt it was sacred ground.

Another site we visited while in Berlin, was the

Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe.

The memorial had an eerie feel to it. It is

a new memorial built in the heart of Berlin

and is impossible to miss. Most memorials

are elaborate and summarize briefly the

events that took place there. The gray

cement blocks of this memorial were plain

with no words engraved on them. The blocks

looked vacant, gloomy, and depressing. The

architect designed the memorial for visitors

to interpret themselves. He gave no answers

or interpretations, but instead a fill-in-the

blank type of model. Olaf’s interpretation

was that each block represented a person—

and the many shapes and sizes of the blocks

represented the loss of many different

“...making history prevent the errors of humanity...”individuals.

Grunewald was another part of Berlin we

visited and there were two memorials there.

The first memorial looked like shadows carved

in a stone wall. The shadows resembled

people waiting on line leading to the railroad

that would lead them to their fate—work or

death. The shadows set the mood for what

I saw next.

Along the platform of an abandoned

railroad, I read the names of cities and

concentration camps and I recognized

dates, and the amount of people who were

deported. Walking along the platform, I felt

grief and desperation because I knew what

each inscription meant for the victims who

crossed the platform into the trains.

Berlin is a city with a terrible past from

which its present-day citizens cannot and do

not hide. The memorials preserve evidence

of the Holocaust and each memorial is as

unique and different as the victims brought

to their deaths. Germany has accepted

responsibility for the Holocaust and in doing

so the nation is making history prevent the

errors of humanity from happening again.


FirestoneSarah



While on our trip, our study group met a

Holocaust survivor named Milos Dobry. Milos

had survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust

by taking an unusual and, what I would

consider, very brave risk. We met Milos Dobry

in the Olomouc Jewish Community located in

Czech Republic. At first, I felt intimidated by

him, although I was not immediately sure as

to why.

Milos came from a family of assimilated Jews

who put up a menorah every December,

but they also put up a Christmas tree. His

parents were Jewish, meaning that he, too,

was considered Jewish regardless of what he

considered himself to be.

Milos told us the story of how one day, while

in Auschwitz, he was so hungry that he went

into a kitchen in the camp, starving, skinny,

overworked, and looking for food. The Nazis

caught him and asked him “What are you

doing here?” Milos replied, “I am the cook.”

In fact he had been given work in the camp

as a butcher, but from then on he pretended

to be one of the cooks. Even though he had

little cooking experience, the Nazis believed

Milos. Since the food was simple, and easy

to make, he was able to quickly learn how to

make the food served in the camp. Having

this job meant that Milos always had a meal

“...making history every day that he continues to live.”

to eat, which kept him stronger than the rest

of the prisoners. This strength allowed him

to sustain himself physically and also kept his

hopes up.

I see in Milos a story of survival. Whether

he developed a faith or belief in God during

his time in Auschwitz or whether he was

captured already having faith in God, he did

not say. But, what was clear to me was his

loyalty to the Jewish people, and the Jewish

religion.

As he retold his story to us, Milos seemed

very proud that he had outsmarted the

Nazis. He was released when the war ended

in 1945, and started a family with his wife

whom he had met in the Theresienstadt

ghetto in 1942. Today, Milos has two great

grandchildren, and his grandson follows

in his footsteps as a leader in the Jewish

Community.

Outwitting the Nazis shows that Milos was,

and is, clever, and that he was driven to

survive however he could. What continues to

come each day, after his survival—his family,

his loyalty to the Jewish people, and more—

reveals the significance of Milos making

history every day that he continues to live.


DamianoKristina

Midland Park High School


“There was not one Holocaust of six million

Jews, but six million individual Holocausts,”

survivor Pavel Stránsky hung his head low

as he recalled the unforgettable horror

of “his” Holocaust. I stared into his eyes,

mesmerized by every word as he shared

with us his story. He took me by the

hands, looked me in the eyes and made

his request: “I am not a hero; I am a victim

with a past that I cannot forget. I can see

that you have a strong heart, so stand up

for what is right. Love is the only thing

that can keep you alive. It did for me.”

Pavel’s journey began with his father’s

begging him to commit suicide to save

himself years of Nazi torture and abuse.

Resisting the idea and gravitating away

from his usual pattern of obedience, Pavel

had another goal in mind—to stay alive and

marry the love of his life, Vera. His story

miraculously continues on through the

concentration camps of Theresienstadt,

Auschwitz-Birkenau and Schwarzheide,

continually escaping the fate of the

“...to make an impact with his individual Holocaust history.”

average Jewish prisoner. Having survived

the unthinkable experiences within the

camps, his motivation to push onward

was Vera. After marrying and living a

full life with Vera, Pavel is still alive and

well today, living his life as though every

day were his last. He shares his story for

people willing to listen and for people

willing to learn.

Arriving at the last step of our walk, I held

onto Pavel and had a difficult time letting

go. Like a precious gem that takes many

years to form under extreme conditions,

Pavel’s life should also be as valued and

admired. From hearing his experiences,

I have learned to value life through a

different window, to approach love in a

different way and to cherish my life as

if I might lose it tomorrow. Pavel’s desire

to make an impact with his individual

Holocaust history has already done so for

me.


Van HoetGabrielle

Saint Thomas Aquinas High School


A simple dirt path led me into the forest

in Trsice, Czech Republic. The silence offset

each step as my feet moved over the rocks

that were part of the forest floor. As I lis-

tened, the scenery around me transformed

into the forest of the past. The path had

disappeared; I was in the forest alone. With-

out the path to follow I imagined what the

forest might have been like seventy years

ago. And then an unknown boy showed me

the way to a commemorative plaque. My

musings ended as I came to the realization

that the boy I had imagined was Otto Wolf.

The Wolf family, like many families during

the Holocaust, had fled their home to es-

cape the Nazis. To remain undetected, the

Wolfs were forced to live within holes in

the forest, away from town. For years, they

lived in these inhumane conditions, relying

on the people around them to bring them

food, to bring them water and to keep their

secret. The Wolf’s story was documented

in the diary of young Otto Wolf himself. It

would come to serve as a new chapter of

information for history books.

“...make history teach...even in the present.”

Years later, in April 2012, the unveiling of a

memorial in the name of the Wolf family be-

gan in the presence of numerous people—

some were students, others were Trsice of-

ficials and others were descendants of the

Wolf family themselves. This was no longer

a story of a family hiding from Nazi anti-

semitism during World War II, but a story of

the present generations acknowledging the

importance of the family and their courage

to survive. The foundation laid with this me-

morial will pave the way for future genera-

tions to travel the same path, learn about

the Wolf family and make history teach

them even in the present.

As the ceremony came to a close, it only

felt right to end with the Jewish tradition of

placing rocks on the monument in remem-

brance of the Wolf family. I recognized the

irony that the rocks, which moments ago

had been part of the forest floor, would

now serve to respectfully mark the lives that

the forest had saved.


LoonamAlyssa



After reading Salvaged Pages and speaking

with the work’s author Alexandra Zapruder,

traveling to the Wolf family’s hometown

in Olomouc, Czech Republic, dedicating a

memorial in the family’s name, meeting a

descendent of the Wolf family and, finally,

meeting Mrs. Ohera, whose family had

help to hide the Wolfs, I was better able

to understand the pain and suffering that

many people experienced because of the

Holocaust.

After the unveiling of the Trsice memorial,

in the Czech Republic, our group visited a

separate memorial located near the Ohera

home. It was there to signify the raid by the

Nazi soldiers on April 18, 1945 when nineteen

men, including Oldrich and Jan Ohera and Otto

Wolf, were killed. The faces on this memorial

made the situation more realistic than it

had seemed to me before. Furthermore,

I witnessed tears come from Mrs. Ohera’s

eyes as she recognized her father’s picture

and stared with appreciation and pride

for the reason it was there. Her emotions

came alive and it was at that moment that

I realized people are still affected today

by the atrocities that occurred over half a

century ago.

As our group moved away from the memorial

“...made history by accepting...and educating”

and moved toward the Ohera home, I stayed

behind to reflect and closely observe each

person’s face and name on the memorial. I

felt that those people deserved my respect

and that I should acknowledge the pain and

suffering of each soul.

When I decided that it was time to move

on from the memorial, I headed back in the

direction of our group. I got chills as our guide

pointed to a window of the Ohera house and

explained that the very window I had been

looking through was the exact one where Lici

Wolf had often been trapped opposite my

side of the glass, staring out into the open

field. At this moment I couldn’t contain my

tears because the thought of Lici suffering

behind a window, unable to reach freedom,

was quite painful for me.

I am still unsure today if it is pain and

suffering that brings people together, or if

it is genuine love and altruism that triumphs

over that pain and suffering. One thing,

however, is for certain: we cannot disregard

pain and suffering, but we can acknowledge

it and allow it to impact the people around

us. The Holocaust Study Tour group of 2012

did that by dedicating a memorial in the Wolf

family’s name, and we have made history by

accepting the pain of the past and educating

the present and the future about it.


PrinceCallie



Learning about the separation of families

during the Holocaust illustrated the tragic

truth that so many victims died alone and

separated from loved ones whose fate

they would never know. While standing

on “The Ramp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau,

where countless people went through

the selection to either work or to receive

immediate death in the gas chambers,

our guide, Mr. Barmore recounted the

story of the mother who “abandoned”

her young son.

Mr. Barmore told us of a mother, son,

and daughter deported to Birkenau. The

son experienced confusion as they all got

off the train and the mother, taking the

daughter’s hand, tried to walk quickly away

from him. When he caught up to them,

the mother pushed him away, and again,

the son ran up to them, but this time the

mother pushed him away so hard that he

fell to the ground. Other men from the

deportation shuffled the son away to the

men’s barracks, but not without enough

time for the boy to bitterly shout to his

mother “I hope you die!” The son learned

later that his mother and sister had been

“and that the history of their lives was not ultimately made to be cut short.”

sent to the gas chambers, and she, the

mother he had cursed hours ago, had

saved his life alone.

While sitting in a classroom studying the

Holocaust, it was impossible for me to

comprehend how many people had lived

and died in each camp. However, while

on this trip, there was a personal shift

for me. I saw the shoes, the eyeglasses,

the luggage, and the gas chambers and

it was no longer about the large number

of victims, but the victims themselves.

As I began to accept my shortcomings as

an observer, I attempted to channel my

energy into remembering each member

of the families. There were probably

millions who had died within a crowd

of people—a crowd of strangers, but

strangers who would share a common

history. Most likely, they also shared a

common hope: that the members of

their families from whom they had been

separated were not experiencing their

same fates and that the history of their

lives was not ultimately made to be cut

short.


CarmichaelHannah



A little girl walks upstairs. She turns on the

lights, and all the horrors that were there

before vanish. Her brother timidly walks

behind her and, hand in hand, they walk into

his room. Hallucinations plague the little

boy, making him afraid to go anywhere by

himself. Soon, his best friend is not the little

boy across the street, but his ceiling fan. The

little sister helps in any way possible, assuring

him that she will always be there to turn on

the light—to take care of him always.

This little girl was me. Living with my brother

has altered the way I view life and how I take

on challenges. Even though he has made my

life extremely difficult at times, I could not

imagine life without him.

Because of my relationship with my brother,

when I was with our study group in Auschwitz,

what made me rock back on my heels the

most was the exhibit inside the museum

with all the prosthetic limbs and belongings

of physically handicapped people. There

were wheelchairs, crutches, and prosthetic

arms and legs, all slightly tattered and worn.

Seeing their belongings directly in front of

me allowed me to picture the people who

once needed them.

“...make history recognize...”

The other victims’ belongings in this part

of Auschwitz were just as personal: rooms

filled with suitcases and even human hair.

With tears blurring my vision, I felt like I was

looking into the past with sad eyes. While

walking through these rooms, I imagined

the owners of these belongings who had

been here. Standing in front of the exhibit

with the prosthetic legs and wheelchairs, I

pictured what I would have done. I created

many scenarios where I would have had to

say goodbye to my brother because of his

mental illness, and it took the breath out of

me. I couldn’t speak or move. I was one of

the last of our group out of that particular

building that day. I just remained there—

staring and crying.

Looking at that exhibit and comprehending

the stories from Auschwitz helped me to

not give up on my brother. The Nazis looked

at the mentally ill and physically handicapped

as a defect of human society. My brother,

the one who loves to play guitar and video

games with me, is certainly not a defect. He

is actually a blessing to all who encounter

him and his gifts make history recognize the

loss of the blessings so many others may

have offered as well.


MonserratVanessa



Millions of people died under Hitler’s rule. Some of these people were business owners, musicians, educators, lawyers, doctors, amateur writers and journalists. These souls all died leaving their dreams behind them when walking to their deaths or the instant they were shot. Others were never able to pursue their dreams because of the status of inferiority implemented by the Nazis. Then there were those who were never given the opportunity to dream because they were too young. Every single human life that was lost due to Nazi control took a talent and gift away from the world. Who knows where our world would be today had these individuals been able to pursue who they wanted to be.

Every mile, every bullet, every can of Zyklon B took away a talented musician, doctor, lawyer, loving father or mother and so many more from this world, leaving only ashes in return. Auschwitz I - the concentration camp was where I saw cases longer than 12 feet deep of human hair, shoes, and suitcases. Each of these items had once belonged to a person. Each belonged to someone who was created for a reason. A portion of these people had been living their dreams, or well on their way to achieving them. However those dreams were cut short.

Some would only know the limits of dreaming. In Prague we went to the Pinkas Synagogue. There I saw pictures drawn from 1942-1944 by children from the Terezin concentration camp in the Czech Republic. The pictures represent the different emotions all these children had experienced—from hope for liberation and acceptance to the brutality they saw daily. Even though all the

“...people who could have dreamed and made history”

pictures were moving, there was one young artist, a little girl, who had drawn so clearly and carefully. I recognized that such a talented youth had obviously had so much potential. I stood there and dreamed of greatness for her.

At Auschwitz I, I saw the proof of even more young souls who had never had a chance to dream. Baby clothes, shoes of little children in addition to all the other artifacts, brought a crashing wave of emotion into my body. Children that fit into these clothes outside of all this tragedy see daily examples of who they want to be whether it is from novels or real people. However, many of these children whose garments were left behind had lost their chance to read a story or find figures whom they would admire. Once they had the ability to process such ideas and use their imaginations, there would be no possible way for them to make their ideas come to fruition.

Throughout this whole experience I battled with the idea of how the value of dreams could be extinguished so completely. I could not understand how such “educated” people who had become the Nazis could create crematoriums not for just people, but for dreams and human potential. How do we know that one of those murdered could not have cured cancer? Written a beautiful aria? Become a significant world leader? Draw a sublime piece of art?

So I end where I began: millions of people died under Hitler’s rule--millions of dreams, potentials and people who could have dreamed and made history if had they been given the chance.


NativoAllison



The ramp in Birkenau had a major impact

on the course of history and the course of

many lives. The selection at the ramp took

thousands of innocent lives and tore families

apart. As I walked down an actual ramp from

the days of the Holocaust, an eerie feeling

came over me. And then Mr. Barmore shared

a hard hitting, shocking story with all of us

on the trip.

During the Holocaust, a teen boy, his mother

and younger sister were at the ramp in

Birkenau for selection. The boy was weak

from the journey when his mother decided

to push him down to the ground. The

mother and little sister kept walking straight

even after the boy called to them and ran to

rejoin them. He reached his mother and was

very puzzled and upset. Again the mother

pushed him down and continued walking

ahead with his sister. The boy, flustered

with anger, then yelled out: “I hope you die!”

He could not have known that his mother

had just saved his life; later that night she

and his younger sister were killed in the gas

chambers.

The story at the ramp disturbed many of us.

I came to the realization that people often

“Making history become lessons”

say things out of anger that they do not

necessarily mean. Teenagers say plenty

of thoughts without thinking and I am an

offender of that as well. Numerous times I

have said things I did not mean at all when

I was upset; I have witnessed others do the

same.

At the end of our day in Birkenau we

walked back down that exact same ramp.

During the Holocaust, however, anyone

who had originally walked up the ramp

was not to return back down it to exit the

death camp—a chilling realization.

After this long emotional day at Auschwitz-

Birkenau, I realized that I should choose my

words more carefully as one never knows

what the next moment or day may hold.

Back home in the United States, we live

very privileged lives where we do not

have to be worry about being sent to a

concentration or death camp as well as

being separated from our families. Making

history become lessons for our own

personal lives can only happen if we are

willing to learn those lessons.


RyanTyler



I am a twin. Because of this, I have always

experienced life in a different way than most

of my friends. My twin and I have shared

family events, have shared similar friends

and have often shared the same classes at

school. Every time I have turned around—

just because we were twins—there has been

my brother, Sean. But on the Holocaust

Study Tour in April, I went off on my own.

Only the students from New Milford, and of

course Mrs. Tambuscio, knew that I was a

twin. The other students and teachers did

not. Until the day we went to Auschwitz.

At Auschwitz, I heard stories about Dr. Josef

Mengele and the experiements that he

would perform on twins. Hearing that and

being a twin really had an impact on me.

How could someone have been as cruel as

that Nazi doctor? What was the purpose

of this treatment specifically toward twins?

What if my brother and I had been alive

then, and had been sent to Auschwitz on a

train? What would have happened to us just

because we were twins?

After listening to our speakers and really

comprehending what I was seeing, I realized

that the experiments on and treatment of

“...make our history as twin brothers...”twins by Dr. Mengele was done because Nazi

thinking saw twins as “not the norm.” This

was so upsetting to me that some of the

people in my tour group noticed my change

in behavior. They questioned me and I told

them that I had a twin brother who had not

come on the trip and that this part of the

tour was significantly difficult and personal

for me, even among all of them. It was then

that I realized that I was doing something

completely different for me—something

that Sean could never experience—I was

dealing with being alone for the first time

in my life. It was an incredible feeling and I

thought that maybe this was how a “normal”

person, who did not have a twin by their

side, felt every day of his or her life.

Dr. Mengele made history by experimenting

on twins. It is something people have heard

about for many years. I will never forget

what it felt like standing on the ramp at

Auschwitz and thinking about Dr. Mengele

and his defintion of “normal.” Being a twin

is normal for me and I will now look at my

brother in a new way and make our history

as twin brothers the best it can possibly be.


LiebermanGabrielle


Holocaust Study Tour

When our group visited the Bavarian Quarter

in Berlin, Germany, a place where many Jews

had lived before the Holocaust, we saw

memorial plaques on signposts along the

streets representing the first laws against the

Jews—the beginning of Jewish persecution.

As we continued through this neighborhood,

we came upon a mural depicting the Bavarian

Quarter in the late 19th century. In the bottom

corner of the mural there is a picture of a

very overweight man. Upon seeing it, Mr.

Barmore asked us to contemplate the purpose

of this mural that was not actually a part of

the town’s memorials. I immediately focused on

the drawn face of the overweight man. It had a

very exaggerated and long nose that reminded

me of pictures I had seen of Nazi propaganda.

But there was something different—instead

of depicting a “stereotypical Jew”, the face of

Albert Einstein was plastered over where the

face of the original drawing should have been.

This was utterly shocking to all of us who stood

there. We noticed that the “vandalism” seemed

to have been done in two stages. The painted

face underneath had been scratched off and

then the face of Einstein had been placed on

top. So many questions ran through our heads.

Why would someone do such a thing?

Initially, I was confused. The mural was insulting,

but to me, this drawing was even more

offensive. It felt as if someone was trying to still

“...making the history of this area come to life...”mock the Jews. First, I wanted to know who did

this. Was it a Jew who walked by the mural every

day and seeing the old image, became so angry

that he or she tried to scratch off the face? Or

maybe it had been done by an ignorant young

teen, thinking it would be funny? Who knew?

I was confused and frustrated and wondered:

why would someone try to make the history

depicted in the painting disappear?

Even today, I think back to the woman who

actually painted this mural in the 1980s. What

was she thinking? Even though this was painted

many years after the Holocaust, why did she

paint it? Maybe she wanted to remind us of

things like anti-semitism, or how Jews were

stereotyped, or how those stereotypes can still

lead to hatred.

This mural, in its own way, and especially this

year, is making the history of this area come

to life for everyone who passes. Next year, I

wonder whose face it will be. Will the artist

come back and paint over Einstein with her

original Jewish stereotype? Will another person

put a different face on the fat man sitting on

the bench in the corner? Even though I don’t

have the answer to my questions, I know that

seeing the mural impacted me and the way that

I will view physical representations of people for

the rest of my life.


SmithHannah



As we walk among the Grzebie Mountains

behind a farmer’s house in Rabka Zdroj,Poland

we discover a small cemetery that could

easily be missed. This is because the path to

this place of remembrance is unmarked.

During World War II, a Catholic convent in

Rabka became part of the site of a Nazi

interrogation school. Under the direction

of Wilhelm Rosenbaum, the Nazis learned

interrogation methods and practiced them

on Jews from this shtetl. They tortured

countless Jews to death and left them

without a proper burial. The Catholic nuns

from Rabka, seeing this utter disrespect for

human life, took it upon themselves to bury

these people in the best way they knew.

They did not know the very specific Jewish

burial traditions, but they gave the bodies

what they believed to be a proper burial.

These nuns risked their own lives to do what

they believed was right. They did not care

that the people were Jewish; they only cared

that they were people.

The nuns buried the murdered Jews in the

forest without any markings on the graves

so the Nazis could not find and perhaps

“Sometimes we cannot make history answer our questions.”

desecrate the grave site during the war.

It wasn’t until later that the Catholic nuns

returned to put tombstones in the cemetery.

These gentile nuns made history when they

showed respect to the Jews in Rabka. By

learning and teaching the story of this place

we were making this history known.

The cemetery now has a fence around it with

a Jewish star on the gate. It is marked now

so that people will know what this cemetery

was and is, but there is little information

about the actual cemetery itself. To this

day the nuns at the convent in Rabka still

do not readily discuss the situation. I know

Mr. Barmore speculated that there has been

some ridicule by members of the Jewish

community because the bodies were not

buried in the proper Jewish tradition. I also

know that the gospel of Matthew says,

“When you give to the needy, sound no

trumpet before you.”

While our visit to the Rabka cemetery may

raise many questions, it raises a final one for

me: does religion really matter in determining

respect for human life? Sometimes we can

not make history answer our questions.


LucasMegan



“Gray.”

Gray was the color of the Holocaust, of the pain and

anguish felt. Gray was the color of the sky on that

cloudy, rainy day when we stopped in the Krakow

ghetto. Gray was how I felt when I thought of all

those who used to live inside the ghetto, trapped.

And gray was the color of the Krakow ghetto’s walls.

Before I went on the Holocaust Study Tour, I knew

that it was one thing to study the Holocaust in class,

but a completely different thing to be where it took

place. But nothing, no book or movie I watched,

would have ever prepared me for the flood of

emotions that were to overwhelm me on this trip.

In my Holocaust class back in Kansas earlier this year,

I studied the Krakow ghetto, learning it was terribly

overcrowded, with an average of four families

sharing an apartment. Once our group actually

arrived there, I could see that the ghetto walls

appeared to be made of Jewish gravestones, now

the color of gray, that stood a few meters high.

At one point, while standing outside a pharmacy in

what had been the ghetto, Mr. Barmore told us a

story that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

In March 1943, the Jews from the ghetto reported

to the square right outside where the pharmacy now

stood, and it was there where they were separated

from their children. The parents were told that they

would walk to Plaszow, a camp a few miles away, and

their children would join them a day later. After

the parents departed, the Nazis shot and killed their

children. The parents learned this when at Plaszow

they were forced to sort the clothing of the dead,

some finding what had been the clothes of their

very own children.

“I will make history by shining a light...”Later that day, as I looked back out at those gray

walls from inside our group’s bus, I tried to imagine

those who had stood, walked and lived behind

those walls during the Holocaust. What had they

gone through? Who had stood behind the walls,

longingly gazing out at the world, wondering why

they could not be free? In my life there have been

times when I have felt trapped, whether it be by

fear or by my own doing. I know from experience

that once I began to feel trapped, a “gray” slowly

overwhelmed me until I began to lose all hope. And

then something would happen for me that would

bring the light out once again. The Nazis, however,

by murdering the children, had denied that light

to their Jewish parents. I wondered how they had

found the strength to go on living in a “gray” world

knowing their children were dead?

Being a part of the Holocaust Study Tour changed

the way I now live my life. This trip made me realize

that I have the chance to live life to the fullest—

the chance to experience the light of the world

and all that light can offer me. The children of

the Krakow ghetto never had that chance to fully

live and experience the colors this world can bring.

Learning about the children made me realize that

I want to live for those who never had the chance

to.

I can make history day to day simply by living

and acknowledging that through the gray there

is always light. I am part of the next generation

and I will make history by shining a light on the

world through remembering and giving voice to

this horrific event.


went into the archives at the United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. We also see

photos and written reflections of students from past

Holocaust Study Tours,

This year we are honored that two very special guests

journey here with us. One is Eva Vavrecka, Otto

Wolf’s niece and Lici Wolf’s daughter, who has been

our friend since our first meeting in Prague last year.

Walking beside her husband Tony, Eva makes this

surreal trek back to the hiding place of her mother,

uncle and grandparents. Another honored guest is

Walking through the woods, we lead this year’s group

of students—our fifth—through the dense forest.

This year the path is clearly marked with fresh wood

chips leading to the new memorial. We hear voices in

the usually still woods; TV crews and news reporters

with microphones approach our students to ask

questions. In the distance near the memorial stone,

on a clothesline strung between towering pine trees,

laminated pages from our 2008-2011 Holocaust

Study Tour books flap in the chilly breeze. Closer,

we can see pictures of pages from Otto Wolf’s diary

previously photographed by our students when they

Trsice & Olomouc


author Alexandra Zapruder, who read pages to us from

Otto’s diary at our Teacher Fellowship in Washington, DC

in 1998 before publishing Salvaged Pages. Since joining

us in Prague a few days ago, she has become a friend to

each of our students, forever changing the way they view

authors of classroom texts.

We stand here overwhelmed with emotion, watching

Olomouc Jewish Community leader Petr Papousek,

grandson of Milos Dobry, who first brought us to Otto’s

hideout in the forest in 2008. How remarkable for Milos, a

survivor of Auschwitz, that his great-granddaughter and

great-grandson stand here, now, hugging the legs of their

father, Petr, as he leads a ceremony for Czech dignitaries

70 years after Jews from this area were rounded up by

Nazis and sent to their deaths.

In the crowd, we see familiar faces, friends from the past

five years. The mayor of Trsice, Leona Stejsksalova, whose

efforts led to the construction of the Wolf memorial,

anticipates its unveiling. Mrs. Ohera stands with her sister,

who we have not met yet, but who must also remember

taking the Wolf family into her family’s home in the last

months of the war. Even though we can’t understand

their language, we understand the loving looks and tears

in their eyes as they greet us with hugs and smiles. Dr.

Brezina, who as a young boy remembers seeing the Wolfs

in these woods, stands with other members of the Trsice

community. An elderly woman in a wheelchair tells our

guide, friend and translator, Ilona, that she was Lici’s friend

before the war, and that today someone carried her here

because this memorial dedication means so much to her

personally. So many people—new dignitaries, presenters

and markers of memory—mingle with our students and

stand with us to watch this history in the making.

After the unveiling, tears roll down our faces as together

we place stones on the memorial, seeing there, also, the

names of our schools back in the United States. Most

importantly we think of Otto, the unwavering boy, whose

diary led American teachers and students here, together

with his descendants, to this secluded forest to mark

the place where Czech rescuers saved his family. Otto is

the historical figure, whose words have become so much

more than just pages in a book studied in the classroom.

His words have become a memorial to all the people

who risked their lives rescuing a Jewish family during the

Holocaust. These words have become a marker for future

generations who will come to this place to remember the

brave Wolf family, who trusted the villagers of Trsice—

and the villagers who honored that trust in the name of

humanity.

As we walk out of the forest following the path, we

take one last look back. The people have all gone, but

the memorial stands, surrounded in silence, beside the

eroding holes in the hillside where the Wolf family hid for

three long years during the Holocaust.


BarmoreShalmi


Mr. Barmore’s knowledge and expertise shape our thinking as we engage in the complexity of the human behavior which surrounds the Holocaust. As we contend with the essential questions he presents before, during and after the experience, we realize that Mr. Barmore’s formal input becomes the lens through which we learn to articulate this history to our families, peers and community. His historical guidance and insight deepens the meaning of this experience and offers an approach unique to our learning framework. We are grateful for Mr. Barmore’s leadership and commitment to educating the participants involved in the Holocaust Study Tour each year.

Our lead historian, Mr. Shalmi Barmore, brings to this program

his many years of historical research in the field of Holocaust education. He founded the Department of Education of Israel’s Yad Vashem. Over the years he has reshaped the face of Holocaust education in Israel and abroad. He served as the historical consultant for Claude Lansmann’s ground breaking

film, SHOAH. He has been the Director of the Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic and founded an Israeli-based education

experiential learning program, Echo-Melitz, which

focused on Jewish identity and its relevance to the Holocaust.


StranskyPavel


Through lectures and tours of the former Terezin Ghetto, Pavel seeks to educate students throughout the world. He shares his experiences in the hope of eradicating indifference in our world today. At the age of 91, Pavel is determined to bring his message to all who will listen. We admire his remarkable courage during the Holocaust and willingness to educate others on such a difficult and tragic part of his own life and his survival. We are grateful for Pavel’s dedication to teach others and for his strength in recounting such a complex Holocaust story. His presence, poise and compassion have inspired each participant to become a spokesperson for future generations.

Our time in Prague, Czech Republic each year is enhanced by a special

day with Holocaust survivor Pavel Stransky. Pavel was deported to the Terezin Ghetto from Prague where he worked actively as a teacher. Pavel was imprisoned in Terezin with his fiancée

Vera. Pavel and Vera married in Terezin just before being deported to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz-Birkenau Pavel was assigned to work in the children’s block,

which ultimately saved his life. After liberation, Pavel was reunited with his wife Vera and they returned together to Prague.


GuidesOur


trusted friends in an important journey of Holocaust study. We are grateful for their open-mindedness and willingness to further our knowledge.

A special thanks to Paul Stilling of Frosch Travel and Marjorie Brandon of Five Star Touring for arranging every detail of our trip with great care and consideration for o u r needs. Their commitment to our program and their providing us with an exemplary itinerary allowed us a seamless, educational, and memorable experience.

A special thanks to our local guides, Olaf Kolbatz of Berlin, Germany;

Ilona Zahradnikova of Prague, Czech Republic, and Ewa Czuchaj of Krakow, Poland. These guides provided insight into local history as well as how this history played a role in the Holocaust. Each of these individuals took great care in opening our eyes to the richness of culture offered by every country. Through these individuals we learned to understand and appreciate the efforts put forth by each country to preserve the integrity of their heritage while struggling with their nation’s participation in the Holocaust. Over the years, these guides have become our


New Milford High School, Midland Park High School, Saint Thomas Aquinas High School and Bishop O’Dowd High School recognize and appreciate the support

of the Board of Education and the administration of each school.

Barbara Collentine, Editor

Walter Pevny, Graphic Design

Bedros Kharmandarian, Layout Editor

Samer Jaber, Matt Trento & Chris Redmond, Contributing Graphic Designers

Kasandra Appice, Cover Design

Karen Vicari, Proofreader

Contact Information:

Colleen Tambuscio, Project Coordinator


One Snyder Circle

New Milford, New Jersey 07646

Phone: 201-262-0172 ext. 2235

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.newmilfordholocaustproject.com

Blog: www.hst10.blogspot.com

Funding for this book was provided by a New Jersey Education Association Pride Grant

holocaust study tour 2012

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