44 | AUGUST 29 • 2024 J
N

A 

visit to a former 
concentration camp is 
somber, emotional, thought-
provoking, transformative — and 
especially eye-opening for someone 
like Christopher 
Carpenter, M.D.
The reason?
Carpenter viewed 
the experience through 
several lenses: As 
the dean of Oakland 
University William 
Beaumont School of 
Medicine, as a longtime 
practicing physician and, of course, as 
a human.
It was all part of the OUWB 
Study Trip to Auschwitz — the third 
consecutive year the journey of 
personal and professional discovery 
has been made by a cohort of 20 
future physicians from the school. 
Carpenter, named Stephan Sharf 
Dean of OUWB effective July 15, 
went on the study trip for the first 
time and recently shared his thoughts 
on the experience.
“Initially, I viewed everything as the 
dean … I was in a role of recognizing 
that the focus of the program is for 
our students and for them to gain this 
amazing perspective,” Carpenter says. 
“But as the week evolved, I felt 
I was more of a participant, too. 
Recognizing that I’m 30 years ahead 
of them, I was able to share some of 
my own experiences and perspectives, 
and I felt like the students gained 
from that.”
They did, according to second-year 
medical students like Ahmed Ahmed.
“(Carpenter) was able to share with 
us the parallels between the choices 
he’s had to make and the choices 
physicians faced back then,” he said.
“It was incredibly valuable to have 
a physician with three decades of 
experience with us on the study trip.”

STUDENTS ARE IMPRESSIVE 
In June 2022, Oakland University 
William Beaumont School of 
Medicine began offering a new 
transformative learning opportunity 
to its medical students through the 
OUWB Holocaust and Medicine 
program.
Part of the program — the 
OUWB Study Trip to Auschwitz — 
is designed to prompt students to 
delve into this distinctive and tragic 
era in the history of medicine and 
critically reflect on its implications for 
one’s own personal and professional 
development within the medical 
profession. The study trip relies 

entirely on donor funding.
This year, the study trip took place 
June 13-20.
Upon arrival, the group spent 
two full days in Krakow, where 
they participated in tours intended 
to help the medical students better 
understand how Jewish people lived 
pre-war and how things changed 
relatively quickly leading up to and 
during World War II.
Sites visited in Krakow included 
the Galicia Museum, Eagle Pharmacy, 
Ghetto Heroes Square and the Oskar 
Schindler Factory, which features a 
permanent exhibition called “Krakow 
under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945.”

Jason Wasserman, Ph.D., professor, 
Department of Foundational Medical 
Studies and program co-director, has 
called the time in Krakow a “ramp 
up” to tours later in the 
week.
The deep dive into 
Jewish life and history 
continued the third 
day of the trip when 
the group moved to 
Oswiecim, the location 
of the Auschwitz I and 
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration 
camps. The cohort visited the 
Oshpitzin Jewish Museum and 
learned more about the town.
On the fourth day of the week, the 
group visited Auschwitz I. English-
speaking tour guides led students 
through the site of the former 
concentration camp. Many former 
cellblocks have been turned into 
exhibitions, each designed to help 
today’s visitors better understand 
what once took place within the very 
walls.
The following day, the group 
toured the massive site of the former 
Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Carpenter says the impact of 
physically being in such places is 
“more tangible and more immediate” 
than studying them from afar.
“It’s not like watching a movie, 
where you feel like you’re a distance 
from it,” he says. “You’re there and 
you see the ruins of crematoriums … 
the gas chambers, the bunks.”
Reflective writing sessions were 
held at the end of most days during 
the study trip.
Students like Tate Shepherd say 
having Carpenter participate in 
the sessions helped tie everything 
together.
“There were many instances in 
which (Carpenter) provided insight 
and examples of when he or other 
physicians he’s known throughout his 

TOP: The group of OUWB students, faculty and staff that went on the 2024 Study 
Trip to Auschwitz take a moment to pose for a group photo. ABOVE: Christopher 
Carpenter, M.D., (left of sign) and OUWB medical students listen to a tour guide in 
the Galicia Museum.

Dean and OU students are changed after study trip to Poland.
Future Physicians Visit Auschwitz

Christopher 
 
Carpenter, 
M.D.

Jason 
Wasserman

ANDREW DIETDERICH OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

HEALTH

