"I would enthusiastically recommend this program. I believe that nowhere else would a traveler get the experiences that you provided." - Traveler
Poland during the Holocaust and Today | A trip about connecting - connecting to history, connecting to people, and understanding that each one of us has the power to make a difference.
Trip includes: Warsaw, Warsaw Zoo, Treblinka, Tykocin, Bialystok (where the group will help to restore a Jewish cemetery), Krakow, Schindler's Factory, Auschwitz-Birkenau; meetings with a survivor, rescuer, and dinners and experiences that highlight the culture and history of Poland.
"I would definitely recommend this trip to others. Absolutely. The trip gave me a much needed moral clarity about what matters in the world, in politics, and in human relations." - Traveler
Deadline for registration - February 15, 2022
Itinerary July 1-10, 2022
Itinerary is subject to change. Meals provided are listed in ( )
Day 1, Fri, Jul 1 | Arrive in Warsaw, Welcome dinner (D)
Day 2, Sat, Jul 2 | Warsaw - Walking tour of Old Warsaw, POLIN Museum, Free evening (B)
Day 3, Sun, Jul 3 | Warsaw - Jewish heritage sites, Warsaw Ghetto, Warsaw Zoo (B, L)
Day 4, Mon, Jul 4 | Warsaw - Treblinka Death Camp Memorial Site, Visit with rescuers in Stoczek, Tykocin, Bialystok (B, L, D)
Day 5, Tue, Jul 5 | Bialystok - Day trip to Jedwabne and community service project at Jedwabne Cemetery (B, L)
Day 6, Wed, Jul 6 | Bialystok - Drive to Warsaw and continue on train to Krakow, Krakow walking tour (B)
Day 7, Thu, Jul 7 | Krakow - Tour Jewish heritage sites, Krakow Ghetto, Plaszow Camp Memorial Site (B, L)
Day 8, Fri, Jul 8 | Krakow - Auschwitz and Birkenau (B, L)
Day 9, Sat, Jul 9 | Krakow - Galicia Museum, Free afternoon (B, D)
Day 10, Sun, Jul 10 | Depart Krakow, (B)
- This trip is geared toward those who want an in-depth and meaningful experience with other open-minded travelers.
- Pre-reading materials will be suggested, and a pre-trip meeting will be held in late May.
- For those researching and exploring their own family histories, we are happy to help make suggestions or connections.
- Clock hours are provided for Washington State teachers.
- Custom extensions are available. Please note: Each day’s schedule is quite full. Please consider extending your trip if you want more personal exploratory time.
- This trip includes a significant amount of walking.
Costs
(airfare is not included in price)
$4150 (per person, double occupancy) | Single room supplement: $725
$3950 for teachers currently teaching in a classroom (per person, double occupancy) | Single room supplement: $725
$500 deposit is due upon registration. Deadline for registration and deposit - Feb. 15, 2022. The deposit will be applied to the payment balance. Payment due in full May 1, 2022. Deposit is fully refundable until May 1. Penalty for individual cancellation May 2 - May 25 is 50% of the cost of trip. After May 25th, penalty for cancellation is 100% of the cost of the trip.
Scholarships - Limited number of $1000 scholarships available for Washington State teachers of grades 5-12 who are teaching the Holocaust. Scholarship will be applied to the cost of the trip. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for application. Deadline for scholarship application is Feb. 15. Scholarship applicants will be notified by March 4.
Tour Package Includes:
- Accommodation in four- and five-star hotels based on double occupancy per itinerary with breakfast daily, local service charge, and tax (standard hotel check-in/out times apply unless otherwise noted): Warsaw (3 nights); Bialystok (2 nights); Krakow (4 nights)
- Land transportation per itinerary by private minibus or coach with A/C
- Tickets for the express train from Warsaw to Krakow in 1st class
- All sightseeing and excursions, including entrance fees per itinerary
- Local English-speaking guides throughout itinerary, excluding Warsaw, where the MIR tour manager is the guide
- Special cultural features as stated in itinerary, including special tours and visits
- Services of a professional MIR tour manager throughout the program
- Meals as listed in itinerary: hotel breakfast daily, 5 lunches, 3 dinners
- Dinners are three-course meals with tea or coffee and mineral water
- Baggage handling at hotels and railway stations
- Radio guide listening devices for the duration of the program
Price Does Not Include:
Airfare; Pre- or post-tour services; Arrival and departure airport transfer; Gratuities to tour manager, local guides, and drivers; visa or passport fees; medical and trip cancellation/interruption insurance; emergency evacuation costs; food or beverages not included in group meals; items of a personal nature such as laundry, alcohol, telephone expense, excess baggage fees, photo/video expenses inside museums (where allowed); other items not expressly listed as included.
Questions? Email Paul Regelbrugge, Director of Education at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
From past travelers:
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this experience. I didn't know what to expect at the beginning but I know I could never have asked for a better experience."
"The experience was once in a lifetime and the information was so in depth!"
"I am blown away by the experience I had between the people I met, the tour guides we were lucky enough to have, as well as the opportunities for seeing what tourists don't get to see."
"I'm still processing all the information we received. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. Thank you!"
"The meaning and depth of emotion and learning with both head and heart seems to increase as time passes and I contemplate all I experienced."
"I never experienced a tour that was so well put together and carried out as this one."
"The trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I will never forget it."
In 1959, at a time of political unrest in Rwanda, Paul Karemera’s grandparents on both sides of his family left their homes in Rwanda and became refugees in neighboring Uganda.
They belonged to the Tutsi tribe – the group targeted in the Rwandan genocide. Throughout the 1960s through the early 1990s, tribal tensions flared back in Rwanda. Paul, his siblings, and parents remained refugees in Uganda.
As a young student, Paul was harassed and bullied as an outsider in Uganda, despite having been born there. When civil war and then genocide gripped Rwanda in 1990-1993, Paul’s father was active in transporting soldiers over the border of Uganda into Rwanda. These soldiers were part of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that fought the genocide’s perpetrators and eventually took over the nation’s government.
At 16, shortly after the genocide against the Tutsi, Paul went back to Rwanda as a “returnee” to the country. Many friends and family had not survived. Paul’s next years involved attending an English language high school and settling into life in Rwanda, which was not easy for him. Nationwide, the genocide’s wounds were still raw. Gacaca courts for restorative
justice were instituted, but many Hutu perpetrators were never apprehended.
Paul has been an English interpreter and travel guide since 2000. In 2009 Paul and his wife, Shelly, founded a travel company, Intore Expeditions, in Rwanda. He now splits time between Seattle and Rwanda. Paul wants students and other audiences in the United States to learn more about Rwandan history and the genocide.
Daphna Robon tells the story of her parents, Imre Friedmann and Naomi Kraus.
Imre was born in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary. Higher education was always his goal, but by the time he was ready for college in 1939, it was almost impossible for Jews to attend university in Hungary due to antisemitic restrictions. He finally enrolled in a university where he endured terrible discrimination from both students and professors. In 1944, Hungary was invaded by the Nazis, and Imre, like many Jewish men, was forced into hard labor. Luckily, he survived the labor camp and was later saved from being deported to a concentration camp by a very courageous person who impersonated a guard. After World War II, Imre escaped from Hungary to Vienna where he received his PhD in botany, zoology, and philosophy. He later immigrated to Israel where he became a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Naomi was born in 1933 in Budapest, Hungary. She was hidden in Budapest during the Holocaust, first in a Swiss “safe house,” then with a family, using a false identity, thanks to courageous non-Jewish upstanders. After the war, Naomi was united with her mother in Budapest and finished high school. She then escaped Hungary to Vienna and later immigrated to Israel.
Naomi and Imre met in Israel on a blind date and married in 1953. Naomi, as the spouse of a faculty member, could enroll for free at Hebrew National University where she received a PhD in biochemistry. Later, the couple immigrated to the United States and became highly successful professors in their fields of science. Imre became quite well known in his field and is mentioned in Carl Sagan’s famous book Cosmos. He was featured in National Geographic and Discover magazine, amongst others.
Daphna was born in Israel and spent most of her childhood years in Houston, Texas. She was a lawyer and worked in insurance before changing careers to become a real estate broker, which she continues till today. Daphna lives in the Seattle area with her family and began sharing her family story as a Holocaust Center speaker in 2021. Her presentation is filled with primary source documents and video clip testimonials of her parents. Daphna has a strong passion for doing what she can to stop antisemitism and racism. Daphna dedicates her presentation to her Grandmother Gizi, one of her strongest supporters throughout her life, and the person who taught her what it means to be resilient.
Jessica Fenton grew up in South Florida very close to her grandparents, Natalie and Murray Borenstein. Jessica knew that her grandparents and their friends and neighbors were Holocaust survivors, which drove her to learn more and ensure their legacies lived on.
Murray and Natalie were both Polish Jews. Natalie was born Naska Grunwald in Sosnowiec in 1918. Natalie and her sisters, all skilled seamstresses, sewed for Nazi wives while imprisoned in the Sosnowiec ghetto. Natalie then suffered terrible conditions in several forced labor camps of the Nazis, including a sub-camp of Auschwitz. Natalie was liberated at Ravensbruck concentration camp in 1945.
Murray (originally Motek) Borenstein was born in Lublin in 1919. He survived by escaping the Nazis en route to the Majdanek concentration camp, and subsequently taking on a non-Jewish Polish identity. With his new identity, Murray was able to work for German factories and businesses until the end of the war.
The two both managed to get to a Displaced Persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany in 1945. While there, Murray taught Hebrew, and Natalie was as a student. They met in class and fell in love. The couple married in 1946, and Jessica’s mother Esther was born in Germany in 1948. The family immigrated to New York in 1949, where they raised two more children and worked hard to create their new life. Later , the Borensteins retired to Florida.
As an adult, Jessica dug deeper to learn Natalie and Murray’s past. Jessica collected documents, video, and photos of her grandparents’ lives and shared them with the Holocaust Center for Humanity to create her presentation. She officially joined the Holocaust Center Speakers Bureau in 2020. Jessica and her husband live in Bellevue with their three sons.