Auschwitz
Berlin, Germany
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp,
Poland
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the SS opened the Concentration Camp Auschwitz to imprison and destroy the Polish resistance and the Polish elite. In early 1942, the SS opened an extermination camp nearby, close to the village of Birkenau. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp became the center of the Holocaust in which up to 5000 Jewish deportees a day (close to two million victims altogether) were killed with poisonous gas.
The Commitment
Volunteers will be working on the grounds
of the Auschwitz Museum and participating in historical
preservation activities of 
the camps. Volunteers
will participate in a hands-on service experience
that supports existing efforts to maintain the camp. Participants will work on preservation, documentation
and archive projects. Volunteers will also be
meeting with Holocaust survivors, taking tours
of the Museums ofAuschwitz, Birkenau and Stamleger,
visiting the picturesque towns of Krakow and Oswiecim
(Jewish center, cemetery, market square) and Czestochowa
(the most famous Polish monastery), taking a sightseeing
trip to Wieliczka Salt Mines, and possibly taking
an afternoon to visit an art-exhibition in the
monastery of Harmeze, which was installed by
a survivor.
The Impact
Former concentration camps in Germany and
Poland have been turned into centers of historical
learning, mourning and remembrance. Since the
last generation of Holocaust survivors is going
to die within the next two decades, future generations
will have no opportunity for a dialogue about
the first hand account of a Holocaust victim.
Therefore, the importance of historical representation
in memorial sites like concentration camps and
Holocaust Museums is more important now than
ever. The opportunity to honor and serve the
last remaining Holocaust survivors before they
too pass into history is rare and incomparable.
Survivors, their descendents and the surrounding
community wish for the preservation of Nazi
Death Camps and they wish for an increasing
awareness of the atrocities. We need to ensure
that the World War II mantra, "Never Again," does
not pass into history with the generation that
first articulated it.
Auschwitz Program References
Lara Judson judson11@wilkes.edu
Morgan Kuhns kuhnsma@wilkes.edu
Allyson Bazaraky bazarsab@wilkes.edu
Kevin
Gaughenbaugh gaughenb@wilkes.edu 570-408-5904
Cory
Chevalier jackgates1@yahoo.com