The first 2 days were spent in Warsaw where we toured the POLIN Museum, lectured with Dr. Mikloaj Winiewski from the Center for the Study of Prejudice at Warsaw University, Professor Pankowski who is the Co-Founder of the Never Again Association, Gert Roehrborn from the Heinrich Boll Foundation, LAMBDA Warsaw (the LBGTQ headquarters in Warsaw), and also toured around Warsaw's former ghetto unraveling the city from the present day construction and life.
So much information and many questions have been brought up along the way concerning current issues and historical issues here in Poland. One of the questions the cohort has continued to discuss is "Whose story is it to tell?" There are many women in my cohort who have familial ties to the Holocaust (the Shoah) however, I am not one of them. This means my experience, and even each of our experiences here in this space, and discussing such topics, is quite different. Nevertheless, we all are coming together and experiencing each of these museums, tours, and lectures together creating great discussions and a unique bond.
Today, June 21st, we spent the morning travel to Oswiecim. Once we arrived we went straight to the Auschwitz Jewish center for a tour and then spent at least 3 hours on an emotional journey walking through Auschwitz I on a guided tour. Right now we are collecting our thoughts on the whole experience and will be coming together in a few minutes to eat dinner and discuss our day. I will be writing another blog on this tour later as I am still sitting with my thoughts on how I experienced the tour.
By the way,. our cohort found out that we are actually the first group to do this Human Rights Program. How cool is that?!
Tomorrow we will be touring Birkenau. Another day that just cannot be completely mentally prepared for, but a day that is extremely important on this journey in Poland.
Until next time,
Sydney
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