Spring break typically conjures up images of sunny, sandy beaches or snow-covered ski hills.
But for a group of School District 43 high school students, this year's spring break won't be nearly so scenic, though it will likely be more meaningful.
Students from Dr. Charles Best and Port Moody secondary schools will be touring the cells, administration offices and gas chambers of Auschwitz, where 1.1 million Jewish men, women and children were killed between 1942 and 1945, and will volunteer their time to do restoration work at the museum.
It's a trip of a lifetime and four of 27 students who spoke to The Tri-City News this week said they expect the trip to Berlin, Krakow, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic will be life-changing.
In addition to touring and working at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Krakow and visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin, they'll tour Potsdamer Platz, the plaza that divided the American, British and Soviet sectors after the race to capture Germany in the Second World War, and visit Brandenburg Gate, the symbol for the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany in 1989. They'll also visit the salt mines in Krakow and take in key landmarks in Prague.
It was Best teacher Ken Ipe who provided the historical context for the trip and arranged the tour to give students added context to their studies about genocide in his Social Justice 12 class and his WWII history lessons. Ipe said the trip is another teachable moment, similar to the Holocaust Symposium he organizes each year.
The students said learning about the Holocaust and other genocides and hearing stories from holocaust survivors during the symposium last year inspired them to learn more.
"It really resonated with me. I think the trip will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to go there and to help restore the place," said Amanda Cheu.
Jenna Watkins said she expects to come home changed when she sees the artifacts and learns about the individuals who lived and died at Auschwitz. "When you see the faces [in photographs] and understand what happened, it hits you: That could be you."
Some of the students also hoped the trip would inspire them to fight other social injustices, such as genocides in Africa and elsewhere, and be more active in other issues where human rights are threatened.
"If we step into this one and we understand it, in the future, we may be more willing to help others," said Sally Arang, also in Grade 12.
For Jesse Velay-Vitow, the trip will be an opportunity to delve into his own family history. His paternal grandparents were Russian Ukrainian Jews who immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s but left behind family members who would have been caught up in the Second World War.
He's also concerned that his generation will be starting the wars in 2020 unless they take time to learn about history and avoid making the same mistakes as their forebears.
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
