“We took 16 students and seven parents abroad. We left on June 14 and came back on June 26. We went to Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Nuremberg and Munich. The focus of the tour was an understanding on how the Nazis came to power, how and why the Final Solution was carried out as well as the demise of Nazi leaders following the end of the war.

“We visited the Wannsee Conference building, the site where the details of the Final Solution were ironed out by Nazi officials Himmler, Heydrich and Mueller, among others. We toured the Warsaw ghetto and heard stories of heroes. We were witnesses to the massacres inside Auschwitz. We focused on those who helped save others and visited Oskar Schindler’s Factory in Krakow. We toured St. Cyril in Prague, where the conspirators who assassinated third-in-command Reinhard Heydrich were murdered by the Nazis. We paid our respects to the murdered Jews of Prague inside Pinkas Synagogue in Prague.

“We were witnesses to the stories of the townspeople of Lidice, who were murdered and wiped off the face of the map in retaliation for Heydrich’s assassination. We toured the Justice Palace in Nuremberg and learned more about the trials against the Nazis. We were witnesses to the crimes inside the first concentration camp, Dachau. We ended our tour with a visit to the former Berghof, bunkers and Eagle’s Nest at Obersalzberg.

“The students were a model of men of character. All took in every part of the tour, becoming living witnesses to history as they experienced the culture of Eastern Europe. It was a fantastic experience and one that I was lucky to be a part of!!”