The Albion group poses before the World War I monument in
the New Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw.

Jaime, Kayla, and Nic enjoy their tour of Krakow in 2005.

Albion College's Holocaust Studies Program Service-Learning Project in Poland will take place from May 9 to May 18, 2009. The students, faculty, and staff members will spend nine days in Poland working, learning, and visiting sites related to the Holocaust and Polish Jewry.

The group will spend five days in Wroclaw, mostly doing hard physical work restoring a Jewish cemetery. In the evening, the group will meet to discuss readings and their experiences.

The group will travel to Krakow, where they will visit Kazimierz, the city's historic Jewish quarter. The group will visit Oskar Schindler’s former factory at 4 Lipowa Street, where in 2001 Albion College students dedicated a large historical plaque which adorns the building. Visits to other historically and culturally important Jewish sites in Krakow are planned, as well. Finally, the group will make an excursion to nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau. There will be some free time for independent exploration.

During the spring semester students going on the trip met for a mandatory 1/2 unit proseminar that covered the history of Poland, the Holocaust, Jews in Poland both before and after World War II, and the transformation of Poland since the fall of communism.

For complete details about the trip and the project, read the application page.
 

Joel Pier-Fitzgerald works at the Wroclaw cemetery.