‘Holy Cross Professors Take Students on In-Depth Study of Holocaust Sites in Central Europe’

In the October issue of Connections, an online publication of the Associations of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, two College of the Holy Cross professors were  featured for taking students on in-depth study of Holocaust sites in Central Europe.

The six week trip led by Daniel Bitran, professor of psychology, and Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, took eight students to Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Lodz and Warsaw, Poland; and Vilnius, Lithuania. Students met daily as a class for a two-hour discussion, which was then followed by or preceded by a visit to a location or a number of locations.

The on-site course exposed students to aspects of Jewish culture before the Holocaust that they knew little or nothing about. Students  learned  of the vital Jewish communities that existed before the war, and of their members’ struggles to survive. “Our intention was to de-emphasize the perpetrators in favor of highlighting the experience s of those who were persecuted. We did not discuss the Nazi regime to any extent, and instead focused on the people who were oppressed,” said Bitran.

The experience for the students was powerful and emotional.  Piotr Broda ’17, an economics and psychology major from Glendale, N.Y, stated “If someone were to ask me to describe the Holocaust in one sentence, I would say that is impossible to do so. The Holocaust differed so much from place to place. Each city and community has its own unique story to add to the complicated puzzle of the Holocaust. Even with Poland, the experience with the Jews differed in Warsaw, Krakow, and Lodz. Now I realize that this course has unearthed more questions than it has answered. We only scratched the tip of the iceberg.”

Read the article in Connections

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Kelly Ethier.