By Caroline Simon Our walk ends in a huge square in the central Mitte neighborhood of Berlin, one of the two districts that includes both former West Berlin and former East Berlin. This fusion of the city shows a reconciliation for Germany’s divided past and sets the tone for its future. We are amid many […]
By Kate Christie Throughout our travels across Europe, we’ve been exposed to various accounts of inhumanity; inhumanity—whether propagated on xenophobic or racist principles—that’s left a devastating legacy. I was particularly struck by how its legacy has affected Central European Roma. Roma, or “Gypsies,” are estimated to have moved here from India in the Middle Ages […]
By Aaron Alonso In the various countries that we have visited throughout Central Europe we are confronted with different interpretations of the Holocaust. Some citizens of Austria and Hungary admit to the role they performed to shape what would lead to the mass genocide of Jews. While these countries admit some culpability, they are experiencing […]
By Madison Bollart Throughout our two weeks of travel in Central Europe, it was rather easy to become captivated by incredible architecture, views, and artistic displays within all of the cities we had the opportunity to visit. Vienna however resonated with me the strongest; not only for what I saw while I was there, but […]
By Hannah Gavin “How does one mourn for six million people who died? How many candles does one recite? Do we know how to remember the victims, their solitude their helplessness? They left us without a trace, and we are their trace.” Ellie Wiesel Elie Wiesel asks us in that quote, as the next generation, to […]
By April Dvorak As I immerse myself in Central Europe through travel and studies, I have become fascinated in Kwame Anthony Appiah’s writing about cosmopolitanism. Appiah explores that every human holds value and are entitled to live according to different ideals. For example, one can be tied to a country of birth as well as […]
By Caroline Simon Prior to embarking to Europe on my study abroad program, I expected to confront the horrors of the Holocaust. I thought I knew plenty from classes I have taken, books I have read, and movies I have watched; I was certain, however, that being in the places where these atrocities took place […]
By Luke Burke I was unsure of what to do on my first night in Vienna. I wanted to do something educational, and looking back on it now I think what I did was more thought provoking than any museum exhibition I could have stumbled upon. Recommended by my teacher, I went to see Leni […]
By Maryrose Dollard In my studies in Central Europe, the information tour guides shared with us that was most interesting to me was sometimes not even said explicitly but nestled in underlying facts. I was often left with questions. Why was it so easy for neighbor to turn on neighbor during the Holocaust era? Why […]
By Jacqueline Murrer Whether it be for art, architecture, or history, museums serve as magnificent places to see artifacts from pivotal moments in history or art, and places to fully immerse yourself in another time period. Some may visit museums on their own for fun or to attend various events. More often than not, people visit […]