Poland Personally:
A Study Seminar to Poland June 25th -July 4th 2022
Comparing Poland yesterday and today based on daily themes such as a thousand years of Jewish life in Poland; dilemmas surrounding life and death and bearing witness; and personal reflection and soul searching are just a few of the ways teachers will focus on the history of the Holocaust.
Overview
Seminar Dates 2022
June 26-July 4
Upcoming 2023 Dates
June 18-26: Applications are OPEN!
Comparing Poland yesterday and today based on daily themes such as a thousand years of Jewish life in Poland; dilemmas surrounding life and death and bearing witness; and personal reflection and soul searching are just a few of the ways teachers will focus on the history of the Holocaust. Accompanied by a Holocaust survivor, teachers will view Poland, its people, its government and socioeconomics in unique ways that will increase their understanding of the value of diversity and the results of prejudice. This experience is powerful and life changing. It offers a distinctive view of the history of Poland, its current position in global relationships and how genocide remains a reality today in third world countries. In advance of travel, teachers will engage in 5 pre-departure workshops that will focus on relevant topics designed to give them baseline knowledge and information to create context for the seminar. As a follow-up to the seminar, teachers will meet for 2 workshops to share the instructional materials that they designed for their students and to further reflect on their experience. Teachers are eligible to receive 3 Act 48 Credits or 90 Act 48 hours of continuing professional education through Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3 for a minimal fee. Teachers will also receive a Resource Book especially compiled for the seminar that includes timelines, maps, historical documents and statistics as well as thematic articles relevant to each day's activities. It also includes site specific articles that offer additional information that teachers can draw from as they develop unit and lesson plans for their students. Poland Personally: A Study Seminar to Poland immerses teachers in Poland and its culture and thus Poland becomes an interactive textbook supported by the knowledge and skills of a highly qualified scholar and personal travel guide. Although the seminar answers many questions that students of history pose, numerous other questions are raised by virtue of the mini-lectures and follow-up discussions.Some of the questions raised by this seminar are:
- Why were the Germans the main perpetrators and why were the Jews the main victims?
- What is the roll of traditional anti-Semitism, prejudice and racism in enabling the Nazis to implement the Final Solution?
- What kind of leadership evolved among the perpetrators and the victims and what were some of the dilemmas they faced?
- How did the relationship between Jews and Poles before, during and after the War impact their mutual perceptions and roles in the Holocaust?
- How diversified was Jewish culture in Europe on the eve of World War II? How did this manifest itself religiously and politically in Poland?
- What lessons does the Holocaust teach us for the future and how can we implement them?
The major purposes of this seminar are to:
- Examine and discuss how and why the most civilized nation in Europe attempted to eliminate the Jewish people
- Understand the dynamics of how a totalitarian regime operates
- Define the moral and ethical dilemmas facing both the victims and the bystanders in the Holocaust and identify the lessons learned
- Study the pre-World War II interrelationships between diverse cultures in Europe, utilizing the Jewish model as a key empirical case.
- Compare and contrast the dilemmas of diversity in modern Europe with what is happening in the United States today
- Examine the characteristics of Polish and Jewish culture, their cross-fertilization and interaction from the beginning of the modern era until today
- Enable educators to create classroom programs, activities, unit and lesson plans that will reflect the knowledge and experience they have acquired so that their students will be more informed about the causes and outcomes of the Holocaust
Itinerary
Sample Itinerary
Day 1– arrival and orientation - Warsaw
- Sites: TBD
- Overnight Warsaw
Day 2– Warsaw
- Sites: Jewish Cemetery at Otopowa st. (Gesia), Nozyk synagogue, Old Town of Warsaw
- Overnight Warsaw
Day 3– Warsaw
- Sites: Janusz Korchak orphanage, parts of the Ghetto, Jewish Historical Institute,
- Overnight Warsaw
Day 4– Warsaw + Treblinka
- Sites: Umschlagplatz, Mila 18, Rappoport Memorial, Treblinka
- Overnight Warsaw
Day 5– Lublin, Maidanek
- Sites: Maidanek, Lublin town center + debriefing
- Overnight Lublin (same hotel out of town as two years ago)
Day 6 - Auschwitz
- Sites: Auschwitz and time allowing – Salt Mines, dinner at JCC in Crakow
- Overnight Cracow
Day 7 – Cracow
- Sites: Old Cracow – Wawel Castle + St. Mary's Church, Free time + debrief Auschwitz, Festival at night.
- Overnight Cracow
Day 8 – Cracow
- Sites: Kazimierz (Jewish Quarter), Ghetto area, Schindler's factory, Plashow concentration camp and Final dinner
- Overnight Cracow
Day 9– Flight home
Resources
Related Links & Resources
- For over half a century, Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance: Commemoration, Documentation, Research and Education
- The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington D.C.
- Timeline of Polish History
- History of Poland
- Timeline of Jewish Life in Poland
- Children's Timeline of the History of Poland
- The First Jewish People in Poland
- Famous Places in Poland
- The World Holocaust Forum
- ThinkQuest on the Concentration Camps in Poland
- Polish Jews in World War II
- Polish Jews in History
Pricing
**For 2022: Previously accepted 2020 participants are given first priority. **
TENTATIVE Costs and Fees:
All costs include: pre-seminar workshops, curriculum, airfare, lodging, all ground transportation, guides, entrance fees and most meals. Full price: Adults $4600 ($3000 not including airfare) Students: $4300 (after $300 CWB subsidy) Private School Educators: (from CWB partnering schools/service areas) $1900* after CWB subsidies Public School Educators: (from CWB partnering schools/service areas) $1500* after CWB subsidies** Out-of-State Educators: Please contact [email protected] for more information. Not included: $100 for tips, some meals, spending money, travel and medical insurance, extra baggage fees, free evening activities' costs. *Based on double occupancy. Single room supplement TBD. **Additional need based scholarships availableVideos
Related Materials and Events
- Poland
- Reflection by Teresa McCombs
- Reflection by Michael Shaughnessy
- A Short Reflection by Michelle Szydlowski
- Poland Seminar Day 1- June 26 By Michele Russo
- Let the World Read and Know": The Oneg Shabbat Archives
- November 6, 2022 Poland Personally Open House Meeting
- The Ghetto Fighters' House Talking Memory Series presents: Artistic Representations of the Plight of the Elderly in Terezin, 1942-1944
- From Australia to New York: Bringing Holocaust Survivors to Living Rooms Around the World
- The Light that is You
- A Study Guide for the Memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel
- Life of European Jews before WWII: Introduction to Journey With Howard Chandler App
- The first years of World War II in Poland: 1939-1942
- Transatlantic Barometer
- "Memory: A Holocaust Survivor's Story" film
- Teaching Trunk Program from Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
- Teaching Trunks from the Florida Holocaust Museum
- 2023 Poland Personally: A Study Seminar to Poland
- Antisemitism
- Ghetto Wall- Warsaw by Starlo Galetta
- Reflection by Teresa McCombs
- A Short Reflection by Michelle Szydlowski
- Hidden History: by Michelle Szydlowski
- CWB Holocaust Remembrance Day: 2023 Community Wide Teach In
- RUINING THE GAME: ANTISEMITISM IN SPORTS
- Post Film Discussion The Partisan with the Leica Camera with Yael Perlov, Simon Lavee & Moderated by Avi Ben Hur
- November 16, 2022 Germany Close Up Open House and Happy Hour
- Anne Frank Lesson Ideas and Plans
- Evaluating Media Coverage of the Holocaust and the Tree of Life Shooting
- Understanding and Ending Hate
- Remembering ‘Tree of Life’… “Never again, means NEVER AGAIN!”
- What the Fact?! Teaching Guide
- International Day for Tolerance
- "Memory: A Holocaust Survivor's Story" film
- Nazi Ideology as Part of a Continuum of Antisemitism
- 2023 Vienna-Prague Study Seminar
- 2023 Poland Personally: A Study Seminar to Poland
- 2023 Children's Village: Volunteer to make an impact!
- The Holocaust
- Blog Post by Heather S
- Day 4: What Bologna Asks Us? by Kate Lukaszewicz
- Discovering Italy: July 15th by Melody Meadows
- Venice by Avi Ben Hur
- Post Film Discussion Speer Goes to Hollywood
- The Ghetto Fighters' House invites you to a new four part series: Violated!: Sexual Abuse During and After the Holocaust: 2nd Session
- Sunday Salon Series - with Dr. Wendy Lower in Conversation with Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff
- Post Film Discussion Sabotage: A SNEAK PEAK
- Anne Frank Lesson Ideas and Plans
- Evaluating Media Coverage of the Holocaust and the Tree of Life Shooting
- Social Awareness and Activism Through Music
- Antisemitism, Past to Present: Activism to Create a Change
- The U.S. and the Holocaust
- "All My Mothers" - The Story of Yehudith Kleinman
- "Memory: A Holocaust Survivor's Story" film
- Nazi Ideology as Part of a Continuum of Antisemitism
- 2023 Germany Close Up
- 2023 Vienna-Prague Study Seminar
- 2023 Poland Personally: A Study Seminar to Poland
- Berlin to Prague: A Study Seminar