In the summer of 2011, I participated in this academic study trip which explored ways in which the Holocaust has been memorialized in Central Europe. Focus was placed on various memorial sites, museums and monuments of the Holocaust. The course took place over a 4 week period of time on the road in Germany, Poland and Austria. 

We studied with students from all over the world in multiple European Universities and bore witness to the landscape of a once war-torn continent that now lives with the guilt, remorse and painful memories. 

           "From the time I was accepted into the program in November of 2010, whenever I would discuss my future trip with people I was always met with a similar response, that the experience would change my life, that visiting former camps such as Auschwitz would be incredibly emotional and moving.  However, the experience of visiting Auschwitz left me in a peculiar state. While I was immediately struck by the sheer size of Birkenau as well as the incredible torture and degradation that personified the smaller Auschwitz 1 camp, I could not help but notice a lack of true connection to the hallowed grounds. I was physically walking on the same land that millions of persecuted prisoners had some sixty five years earlier but it somehow felt hollow. I was sombre and even angry by what I was witnessing but I did not feel the presence of evil or even the innocence that had been lost there. I felt empty."