<p>D is planning a week - ten day trip with one or two college friends for the first or second week of August. All have been to various places in Europe before but this will be the first trip sans parents/chaperones. D and one of the others took a class on the Holocaust and are interested in visiting a historical site or two related to their studies. Also, not interested in Paris/France and probably more interested in Northern/Eastern Europe than Western/Southern. Other than those ideas, they really are starting from scratch.</p>
<p>I visited Dachau once - somewhat outside of Munich. It was interesting to see and a sobering experience and hard to even imagine the atrocities committed there.</p>
<p>Munich is a wonderful city with a lot to offer. Berlin is another city steeped in WWII and German history. Plötzensee Prison (in Berlin) is the prison where political prisoners (including those who planned Hitler’s assassination) & members of the Resistance were held and executed. Berlin also offers the Museum Island where one can visit the Pergamon Museum & see ancient Babylonian ruins, such as sections of the Ishtar Gate. It is a fascinating city for young people.</p>
<p>I’ve been to Dachau. For me, it was a transformative experience. I haven’t been to Berlin, Sachsenhausen or Auschwitz, but Munich and Dachau are definitely worth the visit IMHO. </p>
<p>If she thinks a guide might be useful in either of those places, look up Sandemans New Berlin Tours and New Munich Tours. They have Dachau and Sachsenhausen tours in addition to the free (tips only) city tours. I did the Munich city tour and definitely recommend it.</p>
<p>I have a big passion for studying the Holocaust. I would def visit Bergen Belsen, where Anne Frank died. I would also visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, even though it’s Western Europe. France has a lot of WW2 history. I went to the Omaha Beach and it was truly life changing. If she wanted to visit Luxembourg, there is the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. I would go visit Auschwitz and Dachau too. My nana is actually going to Auschwitz in September. I would also check out the Warsaw Ghetto. Prague also has a lot of Jewish history. Buchenwald concentration camp is another place to visit in Germany. Majdanek in Poland may be another concentration camp to check out.</p>
<p>D1 went to Austria and Munich with a Girl Scout group when she was in HS. The girls all wanted to take a trip to Dachau, and she was moved by the entire experience. She enjoyed the Old World charm of Munich and Salburg. </p>
<p>She went to Prague and Berlin during Spring break with a group from college. She enjoyed Prague, but wasn’t too impressed with Berlin. She said it was too modern, since it had been rebuilt after WWII, so it didn’t have the charm that she enjoyed in Munich and Prague. Berlin remidned her too much of any modern city. She also felt that Berlin was not an easy city to navigate, compared to the few other places that she had been to in Europe.</p>
<p>For a beautiful city try Dresden. While Berlin has it’s modern (revitalized) eastern section, it still has lots of the old world charm. The Jewish museum is well worth the visit as is the DDR museum. If they are interested and have the time, it is a bit of a bus ride, a visit to the original Stasi headquarters is worth the effort. It is housed in a non- descript building in the old east section. The building was the actual head quarters of the Soviet secret police. </p>
<p>Potsdam which is a short hop from Berlin is also worth a visit. </p>
<p>On a recent visit I stayed at </p>
<p>Hotel Friedenau - Das Literaturhotel Berlin </p>
<p>It is not in the central section but located in a residential area. However, public transportation is very easy to reach and use. It is (at least 2 years ago) run by a sole proprietor who hosts literary talent and is in a unique building. It’s quaint, comfortable and I found it much more enjoyable than the Holiday Inn Express (downtown) which I’d stayed at during a previous visit.</p>
<p>I have visited both the Dachau and Buchenwald camps and have been back to Buchenwald with both kids in the past few years. It is located in a not so touristy area and accommodations maybe easier (and cheaper) to find. Since this camp was part of East Germany until 1989 it tells not only the well known story of the German history but also of the subsequent Soviet occupation. It is in a much ‘rawer’ state than Dachau. </p>
<p>Nuernberg is both beautiful and historical…and has great beer gardens :)</p>
<p>early-college, there is no Warsaw Ghetto. The area was completely demolished first by the Germans then for good measure by the Russians, who then made Warsaw authorities build housing on the site. </p>
<p>OP, I would suggest your daughter go to Krakow, in southern Poland and visit Auschwitz. Krakow is beautiful (a smaller, more intimate Prague) lively and fun. It attracts a lot of international visitors and, because it’s also a university town, has a young artistic vibe. The neighboring Kazimierz, which used to be entirely Jewish, has in the past couple of decades regained some of its pre-war character. The local head of the Jewish community has been actively encouraging Jews from other parts of Central Europe to relocate to Krakow in an effort to keep the barely-renewed Jewish culture from disappearing once again. In Kazimierz you can go to the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe (dating back to 11th century) and walk around the nearby Plaszow, site of the slave-labor camp where Oscar Schindler drew up his now famous “list.”</p>
<p>But as someone else pointed out, your daughter should draw up an itinerary fairly soon and make reservations: hotels go quickly, especially the lower-priced hostel-type accommodations. This is especially true for Krakow which is a big destination for British ‘stag’ and ‘hen’ weekend trips.</p>
<p>Moving, isn’t it? There’s a tiny bit of Jewish history here and there in Warsaw, but it’s hard to find and always somehow painful to visit. War, the Soviets, antisemitism (and guilt) erased a culture that only 60 years ago was pervasive, alive and important… The Jewish cemetery in Warsaw is one place I suggest people try to visit. It’s beautiful and haunting because only a part has been reclaimed, the rest is hidden, overgrown, inaccessible… kind of symbolic, I think.</p>
<p>I took a day trip from Prague to Theresienstadt and it definitely will make an impression as it was a town before becoming a “model concentration camp” and then was for untouched during communism and so it remains intact. The museum is very well done…also the Jewish quarter in Prague is so interesting, I do recommend. My first trip to Europe when I graduated many moons ago… neither my roommate or I as two young Jewish women could face traveling to Dachau-too painful. Since then I have been twice to the Anne Frank Haus in Amsterdam and I do recommend along with the Jewish History Museum…really moving experience and well done.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the information. I will pass it on to D and try to get her to make at least a rough plan soon. I had not even thought about the need to make hotel reservations soon, but of course that would be a really good idea. The only stipulation her dad has imposed is that she have reservations for places to stay before she leaves–her initial idea was just to wing it. And money is something of a concern–we’d like to keep the trip within reason, but this is one of the things she bargained for when she chose her less prestigious school with more merit aid two years ago.</p>
<p>I would recommend Krakow and/or Prague (I have been to both). These fit the eastern europe request and the holocaust connection request. Auschwitz is about a 75 minute bus ride from Krakow. Grab an early bus and spend the day between Auschwitz and Birkenau. It’s like a 1.5-2 mile walk between the two camps… they run buses, or you can walk it. Birkenau is huge… unimaginably huge. I cannot understate how much I recommend making the trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau.</p>
<p>In either city, she should have no problems staying in a hostel. When I backpacked Europe I used [Hostels</a> Worldwide - Online Hostel Bookings, Ratings and Reviews](<a href=“http://www.hostelworld.com%5DHostels”>http://www.hostelworld.com) to search and reserve spots, but there are other websites as well.</p>
<p>I’ve also been to Anne Frank’s house, and I don’t think that is something worth arranging a trip to Europe around, compared to Auschwitz/Birkenau which is (IMHO). It is also my personal opinion is that Prague is overhyped, but I realize a lot of people feel differently. On my trip it seemed like there were more North Americans and western Europeans in Prague than in Krakow.</p>
<p>Perhaps I shouldn’t nitpick, but for the sake of accuracy I’ll point out that the cemetery in the Kaimierz District of Krakow isn’t nearly that old; Jews didn’t even live in Krakow until the 1300’s, and the cemetery dates back “only” to 1535.</p>
<p>The oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe is the one at Worms, which does date back to the 11th century. There are tombstones in Mainz dating back to the 12th century. And the cemetery in Prague goes back to the early 1400’s. (There are a number of surviving 13th century Jewish tombstones in Berlin – the Jews were there as long as the Germans – but the cemeteries they came from were destroyed centuries ago.)</p>
<p>As some of you may remember, I visited Berlin last summer with my son (who stayed on in Germany for another 6 weeks after I left); it was the first time anyone in my family had been back since my mother’s parents managed to leave in June 1941. This was the long post I wrote about my visit after I returned:</p>
<p>And I should emphasize that the museums in Berlin are world-class, certainly at the level of the Metropolitan or the British Museum or the National Gallery (both the one in D.C. and the one in London)! I decided not to visit the Holocaust Memorial, but highly recommend the Jewish Museum. And my son told me that he was very impressed, and affected, by the Berlin Wall Museum.</p>
<p>PS: My son visited Prague during his term abroad in Vienna in the fall of 2010, and wasn’t crazy about it – incredibly touristy, and overrun with cheap souvenir stands. That atmosphere detracted even from the Jewish cemetery, in his opinion.</p>
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