My study abroad wasn’t a typical study abroad. Instead of being in one place for an extended time, we were in three different countries in just under three weeks. The Maymester I was on is called “Tracing the Holocaust” and it was led in party by Jewish Studies’ very own Holocaust historian, Dr. Gibbs. Our first stop was in Poland, a country once home to 3 million Jews. It was surreal being landing in Krakow. On my taxi ride to the hotel from the airport, I couldn’t help but feel shocked at how beautiful the landscape was. How could a country that had experienced so much death and destruction still be so beautiful? I would later come to feel that exact way in so many of the places that we visited.
While in Poland, we visited three cities: Krakow, Lodz, and Warsaw. Unfortunately, our time in Krakow was mostly spent in the rain so we didn’t have much of a chance to explore. We did, however, go on a walking tour of Kazimierz, the roughly 500-year-old Jewish quarter. It was amazing getting to see the six synagogues that were and are still part of the Jewish community. Our first full day in Krakow was spent outside of the city, at Auschwitz. There, we went on a guided tour of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. While incredibly hard to stomach at times, it is so important to visit and learn from these sites of tragedy so as to prevent them from happening again. 
Our second city was Lodz. We had two days there full of walking tours. Lodz was home to the second largest ghetto in occupied-Poland. We were able to walk the perimeter of the former ghetto, occasionally seeing plaques that demarcated where the ghetto wall once was located. Our trip wasn’t solely dedicated to the Holocaust, though. We were able to spend time at the Lodz Textile Museum, where we learned that over 50% of the workers would have been Jews living in the area. It was fantastic for people to learn that Jewish history doesn’t consist of just the Holocaust.
From Lodz, we made our way to Warsaw. On our way there, though, we stopped at Chelmno, a former extermination camp. While not much was left of the site, we were still able to visit the museum and learn about a diary left behind by a group of Jews who were forced to work there. In Warsaw, we visited the POLIN Museum that is dedicated to the 1,000 year-long history of Jews in Poland. It was amazing getting to learn about medieval Jews as well as their lives in the 18th and 19th centuries. The exhibits were so informative, I cannot recommend it enough! Because of Warsaw’s amazing public transport system, we were able to do a fair amount of exploring on our own.
In total, we spent nine days in Poland.
