Meet
the participants:
Being there
Interview with Alicia Chou, Tabitha Hargrove, Jessica Kolton and Ian McAuley
The Prague/Terezin Program, sponsored by the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, provides students from a variety of majors with a unique opportunity to study the Holocaust. In an intensive three-week course, participants study the history of Central European Jewry from the Middle Ages through World War II, and journey to central Europe for an approximately two-week visit. Students attend lectures and visit related sites in the Czech Republic, including Terezin, used by the Nazis as a transit camp. Sometimes additional travel to Poland or Germany will be included. The program is scheduled outside of the regular academic year, after the end of the spring semester.
Program director Dr. Tatyana Macaulay notes that the program attracts students of widely diverse backgrounds and majors. "Each person enriches the group with her or his interests and cultural background," she explains.
In a recent interview, summarized below, science majors Alicia Chou '04 and Tabitha Hargrove '06, history major Jessica Kolton '05, and management major Ian McAuley '06 discussed their motivations for participating in the 2003 program, and what the experience meant to them. An online gallery of photos taken by Alicia, graduate student Ray Krause, and Michael Laura Stafford '05, can be viewed here.
Why did you decide to participate in the Prague/Terezin Program?
Tabitha: My friend Ian told me about the program. I had never taken a course in Holocaust and genocide studies (HGS). In high school we learned about the Holocaust, but not in detail. All my friends are doing the HGS concentration and I wanted to learn more. For me, this was a break from chemistry and an opportunity to learn something new.
Ian: The reason I decided to go on the program was to learn about the Holocaust. I've visited Europe with my family and seen concentration camps and museums, but I had never had a class that really focused on the Holocaust. I wanted to bring the bits and pieces that I knew together. I really enjoy going to Europe, because my mother's family is from the Czech Republic--Prague, specifically. The trip was very educational, and it fulfilled my history perspective requirement as well.
Jessica: I've studied the Holocaust all my life. I went to private school and it was a major topic. I've taken a lot of HGS courses here at Clark, but I've never been to Europe and I've never seen a concentration camp. I've spent a lot of time meeting survivors of the Holocaust, but I felt like I was missing something by not being in the environment and getting that feeling that surrounds you that you just can't get from a book.
Alicia: With all the requirements I need for my biochemistry major, it's really hard to fit in the non-science classes that interest me. I was interested in learning something about the Holocaust, because it's not a subject I'd had much information about before. And at the same time this course fulfilled my history perspective requirement. I also got to go to Europe, which was a big thing on my list.
I understand you completed a four and a half day preparation before you actually went to Europe.
Jessica: Actually, that first week is probably the most intense part of the course.
We had to prepare for what we were going to be seeing.
Was there a place that you visited or anything that happened on the trip that was particularly meaningful for you?
Jessica: Just outside of the city gates of Terezin is a burial site for Holocaust victims. There are some individual gravesites and there's also a memorial for the mass graves there. I think seeing that was the most emotional part for me. Since my family is from Hungary and Austria, there's a good chance that any distant relatives caught up in the Holocaust would have made their way through Terezin. I'm very attached to my religion, and even if I didn't know any victims, it would still be very emotional for me. In the end, I did feel a little bit of resolution from being at the cemetery. The Clark professor who came with us said the Jewish Prayer for the Dead with me, and I think that gave me a feeling of attachment to the people who had suffered, as well as giving me solace. I've decided to devote my life to studying the Holocaust and educating people about it, and being able to have those emotions flow over me really made a difference to me.
Ian: I particularly liked the museum in the concentration camp in Terezin. It wasn't so much the museum itself that touched me, as it was the pictures of children in the camp. There was a room modeled after what a room in the concentration camp would have looked like, with the bunks and clothing. It was very touching, especially when I saw pictures of the children and their drawings. They were so helpless, and probably had no idea of what was going on.
Tabitha: I think the trip in general was a big thing for me, because while I knew of the Holocaust, I didn't know the details. In Lidice there is a big monument depicting the faces of children that were killed. Seeing that, being in the concentration camp, staying in a room where people were imprisoned, and seeing the torture chambers are experiences you can't get from a book. Being there at Terezin, it's real, it's right in front of you. That really brought the Holocaust home to me. It really did happen. It was serious. You can't get that kind of experience from a book.
Alicia: History has always been something that was hard for me to connect to. You don't really get as much out of a book as I think you do when you actually go to places where these things happened, and you get to see actual photos and relics from that period, whether it be the drawings of the children of Terezin or just the ruins in general. Then you have to connect with it. Reading from a textbook you don't get as much of a connection.