With all the snow that has been falling and as the day got closer I was getting nervous the class may be cancelled due to the weather... especially when the weathermen forecasted another "storm" for today! Fortunately, it was going to mostly be a rain event. That made me very happy!
I was nervous, yet excited to go to school today. I would be meeting the people I would make this journey to Poland with and I didn't know any of them! When I went to Italy in 2005 for 3 weeks I didn't know any of the people who went on that trip either, and in the end it was a wonderful experience. I hope I luck out this time around, too.
Today we started learning about the history of the Nazi's and that their radical ideas of anti semitism weren't new ideas. Have you ever heard of that word before? Do you know what anti semitism is? Anti semitism is when you are prejudiced against Jewish people. The Nazi's were very prejudiced against Jewish people. When I go to Poland I am going to learn about what the Nazi's did to the Jew's living in Poland. That is what we call the Holocaust.
Learning about the Holocaust can be very sad because what happened during the Holocaust is terrible. I already know the first thing that I am going to pack for my trip are many, many tissues. But it is something that we should all learn about so as to learn from it. We should learn about it so something horrible like this won't be repeated. The first time I was introduced to the Holocaust was when I was in the 5th grade. We read a book called Daniel's Story. That was 16 years ago, but I will never forget reading that book. Since then I have always been interested in learning about World War II.
It's another month before my next pre departure class. During that time I have to read 2 books. One book is called I Promised I Would Tell by Sonia Weitz and a book called Auschwitz. I'm excited to read the book by Sonia because before she died at the beginning of the summer she lived in this area.
To learn more about the trip I am taking, you can read about it here.
(This is a picture taken at Auschwitz. Arbeit Mcht Frei means Work will set you free.)
