A Trip to Remember

The quiet group of Grinnell students and faculty filed past Vienna’s Shoah Wall of Names memorial. Even the bright morning sunshine and blue sky overhead couldn’t dispel the chill cast by the seemingly endless list of names carved in stone, representing the more than 64,000 Austrian Jews murdered by the Nazis.

Even later, long after they had moved on, Mira Diamond-Berman ’25 found that she couldn’t stop thinking about the tens of thousands of stories that had been lost.

The Hard Work of Remembering

Recalling horrific events can be painful. But in the case of the Holocaust, Dan Reynolds sees danger in forgetting.

“There’s the platitude about being condemned to repeat history if we don’t confront it,” says Reynolds, who is professor of German studies and the Seth Richards Professor in Modern Languages. “I think we have forgotten some important lessons or have allowed ourselves to be distracted from them.”

Reynolds and Assistant Professor of German Studies Viktoria Pötzl taught concurrent classes in spring 2024, both related to Jewish life, history, and culture. Reynolds’ course, The Holocaust Remembered, addressed the need to remember, the ways we remember, and how memorialization relates to our present-day values. Pötzl’s class — Love, Lust, and Laughter: Jewish Life in 20th-Century Vienna, Budapest, and Krakow — focused on Jewish culture, literature, music, life, and politics, both before and after the Shoah.

The two courses culminated in a 10-day class trip to Austria, Poland, and Hungary, co-organized and led by Reynolds and Pötzl. The courses were part of the Institute for Global Engagement’s Course Embedded Travel (CET) program, where students take a semester-long course focusing on a global theme. CET courses include course-embedded travel to at least one global destination for a site-based learning component. Generous gifts to the Institute for Global Engagement make the courses and associated travel possible, with scholarships available for students who qualify for need-based financial aid.

The Importance of Paying Attention

It’s an interesting time to explore the issues surrounding the Holocaust and Jewish culture, Reynolds says. “When we see global violence and intentions and just realize how much the past plays a role in informing these conflicts, that’s a reminder to us that we need to keep paying attention.”

He selected the readings and coursework in part to prepare students for what they would experience on the trip. “We definitely looked at the history of antisemitism in the course and the way it got mobilized and how it was morphed into this murderous enterprise,” Reynolds says. “I think there’s definitely a lesson there.”

He also wanted to make the classroom a safe space for the discussion of complex issues. Reynolds says he was impressed by the sensitive and respectful way his students approached the subject material and class discussions.

A Vibrant Jewish Culture

The trip began in Vienna, where the students visited Jewish sites, synagogues, community centers, memorials, and museums. Their guest speaker at the Jewish Museum Vienna, Zwi Bar-David, shared his story of growing up as an Austrian Jew and the child of Holocaust survivors.

Reynolds says Pötzl brought deep cultural knowledge to the trip, and her students made up the other half of the trip’s participants. The two classes exchanged knowledge during the semester and enriched each other’s insights on the trip.  

Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay, who is also dean of religious life and chaplain of the College, accompanied the group as well. Reynolds says she provided valuable knowledge and context for the students and the professors. She also offered a comforting presence on difficult days.

“I think the trip was not just on how Jews died in Europe, but also appreciating the vitality of the culture that was there,” Reynolds says. “The whole purpose of the trip was not just to focus on loss, but also the vibrancy of the culture that once thrived there.”

Cultural Tourism

The next stop for the Grinnell group was Krakow, Poland — once home to the largest Jewish community in the world. The group stayed in the historic Jewish quarter of the city, though few Jews remain in Poland today.

For Diamond-Berman, it was a surprise to see the prevalence of Hebrew and Magen Davids (Jewish stars) in Krakow. “Jewish culture seems to have been commercialized for tourism, although most of the Jewish culture was eradicated in the Holocaust,” she says.

Reynolds agrees, adding that this kind of Jewish-themed cultural tourism can seem a bit vulgar when juxtaposed with the Holocaust. “There’s this kind of resurgent, almost nostalgic, recovery of Jewish life in Krakow that can be a little touristy or kitschy.”

Honoring the Victims

From Krakow, the group traveled west to Oświęcim, home of Auschwitz-Birkenau, perhaps the most notorious of the Nazi death camps. Reynolds had worked throughout the semester to prepare his students for this experience through readings, a viewing of the film Zone of Interest, and discussions about what it means to visit a place like Auschwitz, which is the final resting place for over a million people. “They were well prepared for it, and I think they learned from it,” Reynolds says.

Even so, it was a difficult day.

“We went to the two main camps,” Reynolds says. “After each one, we were with Rabbi Sarah, who said the Kaddish, the Jewish Prayer of the Dead, after each visit. And that was really appropriate and helpful.”

Diamond-Berman appreciated the rabbi’s presence. “At the end of the intense tour, Rabbi Sarah led us in the song Oseh Shalom (a Jewish prayer for peace),” Diamond-Berman says. “We ended the day having dinner together at the Jewish Cultural Center of Oświęcim and then touring their small synagogue.”

She adds, “Despite being an extremely difficult day for all of us, I found comfort in a multifaith group being able to enjoy a meal together after a very saddening experience.”

“I think anytime you go to a place like this on a tourist basis, if you’re thoughtful, you’re wondering about the appropriateness of your visit and how to behave there and what you’re getting out of the experience,” Reynolds says.

“We’re not doing it so that we can feel better about ourselves. We’re doing it to honor the victims.”

On to Budapest

The Grinnell group began their visit to Budapest, Hungary, with a walking tour of the city’s Jewish district. Budapest is home to the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe as well as many Jewish memorials.

Students toured the Dohany and Rumbach Street synagogues, which were both “stunning,” according to Diamond-Berman. She was surprised to see an organ and church-like architecture at the Dohany synagogue. “I learned that synagogues assimilated to Christian traditions for fear of antisemitism,” she explains.

They also visited the vibrant Jewish Cultural Center and met with a member of a Roma foundation for a walking tour of a predominately Roma neighborhood.

Home Again

With the trip now behind them, Reynolds says he’s pleased with the way it worked out. “I’m still kind of dizzy thinking about all the things we saw. It was a real success.”

He adds, “It was just a privilege to travel with these students, but also with two great colleagues. I would want to just put in a word for appreciation that Grinnell does this sort of thing and I hope it continues to do so. I think it’s more and more important all the time.”