"I would absolutely recommend this program. We were all drawn to this trip for different reasons, some personal, some professional, but I think we all came away with an emotional bond that comes from witnessing the extremes of what human beings are capable of. I will not forget this experience." - Traveler
Vienna & Poland Holocaust Tour: July 2-13, 2024
Learning Lessons of the Holocaust through Human Stories
A trip about the meaning of memory and connecting - connecting to history, connecting to people, and understanding that each one of us has the power to make a difference. This trip is open to participants of any race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or background.
Trip includes:
Vienna and Korneuburg, Austria; Warsaw; Treblinka; Minsk Mazowiecki; Stoczek; Krakow; Holocaust by Bullets: Miechow, Dzialoszyce, Dzieraznia; Auschwitz-Birkenau; meetings with a survivor, rescuer, and dinners and experiences that highlight the culture and history of Vienna and Poland.
"I would definitely recommend this trip to others.The trip gave me much needed moral clarity about what matters in the world, in politics, and in human relations. I feel that history is repeating itself and we have to be vigilant to evolving current events" - Traveler
Deadline for registration: February 15, 2024 | A $500 deposit is due upon registration.
Itinerary July 2-13, 2024
Itinerary is subject to change. Meals provided are listed in ( )
Day 1, Tue, Jul 2 | Arrive in Vienna, Welcome dinner (D)
Day 2, Wed, Jul 3 | Vienna & Korneuburg - Bus to Korneuburg to visit Europe’s oldest synagogue (today a garage!) and learn about Jewish history there to this day. After lunch return to Vienna for walking tour of Jewish quarter of Leopoldstadt and Jewish Museum Vienna (B, L)
Day 3, Thu, Jul 4 | Vienna - Warsaw, Poland - Visits to Ringstrasse and various Jewish heritage sites. Flight to Warsaw (B, L)
Day 4, Fri, Jul 5 | Warsaw - Explore Jewish history in Poland, including visits to Nozyk Synagogue, Warsaw Ghetto Wall, Genscher Cemetery, Jewish Historical Institute, and Old Town Walking Tour (B, L, D)
Day 5, Sat, Jul 6 | Warsaw - Treblinka - Stoczek - Warsaw - Day trips to Treblinka – where we will also plant a tree in Janusz Korczak’s Forest – and then visit with a rescuer in Stoczek before returning to Warsaw (B, L)
Day 6, Sun, Jul 7 | Warsaw - Jewish history in Poland, including the Warsaw Ghetto, Monument of Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, Warsaw Ghetto Zoo, meet with Forum for Dialogue representative, Praga Jewish Cemetery and cemetery restoration, (B, L)
Day 7, Mon, Jul 8 | Warsaw - Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, meet with survivor and tour hideouts on the Warsaw Ghetto Walking Tour (B, L)
Day 8, Tue, Jul 9 | Warsaw - Minsk Mazowiecki - Warsaw - Krakow. Visit Minsk to learn about its history, meet with deputy mayor to consider their work preserving Jewish memory there, visit local Jewish cemetery. Travel to Krakow, walking tour of Old Town. (B, L, D)
Day 9, Wed, Jul 10 | Krakow - Holocaust by Bullets: Miechow, Dzialoszyce and Dzieraznia - Krakow. Day trip with Yahad-in Unum to these three villages to meet with witness and consider how the Holocaust by Bullets was humanly possible (B, L)
Day 10, Thu, Jul 11 | Krakow - Visit Galicia Museum where we will participate in a workshop, Traces of Memory, guided tour of Krakow Jewish Quarter and Ghetto area (B)
Day 11, Fri, Jul 12 | Krakow - Visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, Shabbat Dinner at Jewish Community Center (B, L, D)
Day 12, Sat Jul 13 Depart Krakow. Independent arrangements for departure and/or transfers.
- This trip is geared toward those who want an in-depth and meaningful experience with other open-minded travelers.
- Pre-reading materials will be suggested, and a pre-trip meeting will be held in late May.
- For those researching and exploring their own family histories, we are happy to help make suggestions or connections.
- Clock hours are provided for Washington State teachers.
- Custom extensions are available. Please note: Each day’s schedule is quite full. Please consider extending your trip if you want more personal exploratory time.
- This trip includes a significant amount of walking.
Costs
$6250 (per person, double occupancy) | Single room supplement: $1250
$500 deposit is due upon registration. | Deadline for registration and deposit - Feb. 15, 2024.
The deposit will be applied to the payment balance. Payment due in full May 1, 2022. Deposit is fully refundable until May 1. Penalty for individual cancellation May 2 - May 25 is 50% of the cost of trip. After May 25th, penalty for cancellation is 100% of the cost of the trip.
Scholarships - A limited number of $5,000 scholarships available for Washington State teachers of grades 5-12 who are teaching the Holocaust and have not previously participated in one of our Holocaust study tours. Scholarship will be applied to the cost of the trip. Deadline for scholarship application is February 15. Scholarship applicants will be notified by March 4. The scholarship application form can be found here.
Questions? Email Paul Regelbrugge, Director of Education at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Tour Package Includes:
- Accommodation in four- and five-star hotels based on double occupancy per itinerary with breakfast daily, local service charge and tax (standard hotel check-in/out times apply unless otherwise noted): Vienna (2 nights); Warsaw (5 nights); Krakow (4 nights)
- Land transportation per itinerary by private coach with A/C
- Tickets for the express train from Warsaw to Krakow in 1st class
- All sightseeing and excursions, including entrance fees per itinerary
- Local English-speaking guides throughout itinerary, excluding Warsaw, where the MIR tour manager is the guide
- Special cultural features as stated in itinerary, including special tours and visits focused on the program’s theme
- Services of a professional MIR tour manager throughout the land tour program
- Meals as listed in itinerary: hotel breakfast daily, 10 lunches, and 4 dinners
- Dinners are three-course meals with tea or coffee and mineral water •
- Welcome dinner in Vienna with beverages including 2 glasses of beer or wine, and farewell Shabbat dinner at JCC in Krakow
- Baggage handling at railway station in Krakow
- Radio guide listening devices for Vienna
- Tree planting in Treblinka
- Destination preparation information packet
Price does not include:
International airfare between the U.S. and the start and ending cities; air taxes or fuel surcharges; pre- or post-tour services; arrival and departure airport transfers; gratuities to tour manager, local guides and drivers | Visa or passport fees | Medical and trip cancellation/interruption insurance | Emergency evacuation costs | Food or beverages not included in group meals | Items of a personal nature such as laundry, alcohol, telephone expense, excess baggage fees, photo/video expenses inside museums (where allowed) | other items not expressly listed as included.
Notes:
- Prices are based on a minimum group size of 15 paying passengers. Prices are subject to increase if the number of paying passengers is fewer than a total of 15.
- Prices are based on currently available rates and are subject to change.
From past travelers:
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this experience. I didn't know what to expect at the beginning but I know I could never have asked for a better experience."
"The experience was once in a lifetime and the information was so in depth!"
"I am blown away by the experience I had between the people I met, the tour guides we were lucky enough to have, as well as the opportunities for seeing what tourists don't get to see."
"I'm still processing all the information we received. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. Thank you!"
"The meaning and depth of emotion and learning with both head and heart seems to increase as time passes and I contemplate all I experienced."
"I never experienced a tour that was so well put together and carried out as this one."
"The trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I will never forget it."
This program was generously funded, in part, by the Claims Conference. Thank You!
King 5 News | April 27, 2022
EDMONDS, Wash. — A new exhibition at Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds showcases the work of holocaust survivor and artist Maria Frank Abrams.
She had a celebrated career including an array of group and solo shows. But like all the artists featured at Cascadia, Abrams’ work eventually disappeared from the mainstream art world.
The museum focuses on neglected or forgotten artists whose work spans the years 1860-1970. Many of them are women and people of color.
"Maria Frank Abrams is a great example of what we do here,” said Sally Ralston, Executive Director of Cascadia. "We are honored to showcase these artists again and bring their art here, and give them the respect their art deserves."
The Reflector | April 18, 2022 | By Sebastian Rubino
Peter Metzelaar, a Holocaust survivor from Amsterdam, shared his story with students at Battle Ground High School during a presentation he gave on April 14.
Metzelaar, who is 86, was born in Amsterdam in 1935. In 1942, when he was 7 years old, the Nazis seized members of his family, who were Jewish. Metzelaar and his mother, Elli, found shelter on a small farm in Mekkinga in northern Holland with the help of Klaas and Roefina Post.
They later moved from place to place in hiding until the war ended in 1945.
“In Holland, it was a very small country, and at that particular time, there were only about 140,000 people of the Jewish faith,” said Metzelaar. “The Nazis took over in May of 1940. By the time it was over in May 1945, of the 140,000 (people), between 75 to 80% were murdered. I don’t even like to use the word killed. They were murdered intentionally.”
FM News 101 KXL | March 16, 2022
Battle Ground, Wash. – Battle Ground High School world history teacher Amanda Fulfer is headed to Poland this July as a part of a program put on by the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
Fulfer tells KXL News “It’s a once in a life time opportunity.”
Fulfer says her background is in East Asian studies, but at the beginning of the pandemic when schools switched to online and changed some of its curriculum, she was told she’d be the only one teaching a brand new European history class and had to figure out how to prepare for it on her own. While prepping she quickly became fascinated by the story of the Holocaust and felt a calling to share those stories from that period to future generations. In Poland she’ll visit Auschwitz Birkenau, the Warsaw Ghetto and Schindler’s factory, saying it will give her a powerful perspective into what she teaches