Jada's Journeys

Hello and welcome back to my blog! Today I will be talking about my Short Study Tour that occurred last week. A Short Study Tour is a 3-day trip that students take with their Core Course, to learn more about the subject in a new area. My Core Course is Holocaust and Genocide and for our study tour we travelled to Hamburg, Germany.

Day 1:

My study tour started early Thursday morning with a 4 hour bus ride and an hour long ferry ride from Copenhagen to Hamburg. Our first stop of the day was to the Bullenhuser Damm School where we discussed the events that occurred there and then walked through the memorial rose garden that honored each life that was lost. It was a heartbreaking story, but the memorial was beautiful and it was interesting to see how in the Jewish community they leave stones on top of memorials as a way to respect the deceased. After the memorial, we checked into our hotel and had free time for the rest of the day. My classmates and I spent our evening exploring Hamburg and eating some delicious pasta and ice cream!

Day 2:

We started off our Friday morning with breakfast in the hotel before heading over to the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, which consisted of an inside museum and an outside memorial. The inside museum contained many different pictures, artifacts, and interviews of people who were alive during the Holocaust, while the outside consisted of multiple memorials and mass graves. Our teacher guided us through everything and it was a really insightful and thought-provoking experience. After the memorial, my entire class headed to a nice restaurant for lunch. This was a great opportunity to bond with some more of my classmates, as well as, my teacher. Afterwards, we had the rest of the evening to ourselves, so I spent my time doing some more exploring and eating hamburgers in Hamburg. (it was a veggie burger, but same thing)

Day 3:

On our final day, we started off our morning at the St. Nicolai Kirche Memorial where we admired the view of the church and listened to our professor teach us about the events that had occurred there, as well as, the Stumbling Stones. These stones are scattered throughout Europe and each one commemorates a victim of the Holocaust and is placed outside of their last known residence. We then had some free time for coffee and exploring before heading to our next destination, the Neuengamme Concentration Camp. Here, our professor walked us through the different areas of the camp and talked about the history of it. It was a moving experience and afterwards we began our journey back to Copenhagen.

Wrap-Up

So to sum it all up, this study tour was a really impactful experience. I learned so many new things and was able to see first hand where historic events had taken place. I had the opportunity to explore a new city and bond with both my classmates and my teacher, inside and outside of an academic setting. I’m excited for our next study tour which will be in Poland in a few weeks!