Let the

Exploring Roots

Albion, MSU students travel to Poland to learn, serve and bond.

Nate Strauss } jewish@edu writer

I

've written for jewish@edu before when
I chronicled my experiences from my

take care
of you.

first trip to Israel in spring 2012 on the
March of the Living and how that trip sparked

my interest in returning to Israel, which I have
since done twice.

But March of the Living is not just a trip
about Israel. It is also about remembering

the Holocaust and seeing the concentration

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camps in Poland. The camps made an ever-
lasting impression in my mind, but I really

thought it would be many years until I would
have the opportunity to return to Poland to

see them again.
However, just three short years after my

first steps into Auschwitz, I returned.

On May 10, a group of students, faculty
and staff from Albion College and Michigan

State University embarked on a journey to see
Poland firsthand.

Students, faculty and staff from MSU and Albion College
in Poland

The Holocaust Studies Service Learning
Project, planned and run by Albion College,
allows Albion students to study survivor
testimonies, films and academic books about
the Holocaust and then meet once a week
during the spring semester to discuss. Once
the semester ended, the students spend 10
days exploring Poland, with the first four days

up. I was going back to Poland.
Our itinerary was ambitious, spending
hours in the cemetery and also having dis-
cussions on books and important themes

distinct architecture, colors and landscape. My
favorite part was touring and dining in the
Jewish Quarter of Krakow. The area had a hip,
exciting feeling I connected with instantly. It

spent cleaning and refreshing a Jewish cem-
etery, neglected when World War II began and
the Jews who tended to the cemetery were
taken from their homes.
The staff who planned the class and trip
reached out to MSU Hillel to invite students
interested in coming on the trip with them.
I was skeptical about going because I would
finish final exams just two days before leav-
ing, and I was also unsure of where my sum-
mer internship plans would take me.
On a whim, however, I signed up for the
trip. This was an opportunity I couldn't pass

of the trip. We also built relationships with
one another and blended the two colleges
together. It was an amazing opportunity to
transform the cemetery from a pile of sticks,
debris and foliage to actually uncovering
headstones and designated graves. Our work
not only affected those buried in the cemetery
and their families, but we also helped the two
groundskeepers with what would have taken
them weeks.
We also had the opportunity to explore
and experience two of Poland's largest cities,
Wroclaw and Krakow — each with its own

was incredible to see a vibrant Jewish com-
munity in a country that before the Holocaust
once held a large number of the global
Jewish population.
We went on an informal tour of the
Plaszow work camp and the formal tour of
Auschwitz and Birkenau. Even the second
time around, I was still so shocked by the
horrors that went on in the camps. And while
we saw and took in a lot, walking out of the
gates of Auschwitz replays in my mind numer-
ous times each day.
I walked into the gates with "Arbeit Macht
Frei" over my head. I touched the same
ground that millions have touched. I felt the
sun warm my skin and heard birds chirping. I
took in the history of one of the worst events
to ever happen to humanity. And then, I was
able to walk back out of the gate.
And there is something about that I will
never forget. I didn't forget it the first time,
and I didn't forget the second, third and
fourth times I walked out. I won't ever forget.
Coming home to Michigan, I was inspired
to add Holocaust education to my life and
strive to learn as much as I can. Connecting
to the Holocaust is essential work in the lives
of Jews everywhere and, with this trip, I am
energized to educate others, share my story
and, most importantly, to never forget the 6
million. @

MSU senior Ilana Woronoff of West Bloomfield and
Robyn Hughey, assistant director at MSU Hillel, work
to uncover markers at a Polish Jewish cemetery.

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Reserve online!
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Nate Strauss of Farmington Hills is a senior

at Michigan State University.

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July 2 • 2015

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