Mandira Bungalows

Sunshine Travels – a subsidiary of Sunshine Holdings Ltd., one of the leading investment conglomerates in Sri Lanka – are further expanding their business in the hotels segment with substantial investments towards innovative new developments. They aim to offer a unique holiday experience through their newly launched umbrella brand ‘Mandira Bungalows’ which will feature colonial style boutique bungalows in several locations around the Island – most with some historical significance.

Recognising tourism as the thrust sector for the Sri Lankan Economy since the cessation of the 30 year civil war, the parent Group Sunshine Holdings, intends to capitalise on its current positive experience in the tourism industry by taking steps to penetrate into new avenues in the travel business. Hence, the company is expanding their horizons in the hospitality industry by establishing ‘boutique bungalows’ across the country – this is in addition to the two plantation bungalows of Sunshine Travels which now come under the Mandira brand - newly refurbished and re-launched as Mandira Strathdon Bungalow and Mandira Dickoya Bungalow. Promoted as boutique bungalows they are aimed at offering a novel experience.
Making a refreshing change from the over popular beach destinations, the misty mountains and the cool climate of Sri Lanka’s ‘up country’ holds much potential for the leisure sector, with new opportunities and options to take advantage of – precisely what Sunshine Travels have taken the lead in doing, by starting out with the launch of Mandira Bungalows.
Now owned and managed by Watawala Plantations – a leader in the plantations sector, Strathdon and Dickoya bungalows were built in the early 1900’s in the style of that era to provide a comfortable and somewhat familiar home from home to ‘planters’ who presided over the estates. Their colonial ambience is lovingly preserved today in the elegant decor; the simple luxury and the warmth of service that makes these two boutique bungalows so unique.
The bungalows are cosy havens where guests can step back in time and wake up to the charms of 19th century decor. Old prints of colonial heyday adorn the walls. Heavy drapes, feather soft pillows, linen and lace and thick pile carpets – with such comfort embracing one from all around, the temptation to snuggle up in an armchair all day and lazily admire the view of lush estates outside the window, is one that is easy to give into. Colonial comforts aside, every modern facility and convenience - from hot showers to cable TV is also there to keep visitors firmly in the indulgences of the 21st century. The gardens surrounding the bungalows are extensive with beautiful mountain vistas and the rolling slopes of the tea estates around. The cuisine at Mandira offers the best of both worlds with an extensive menu offering a choice of Western and Eastern dishes carefully prepared to suit the most discerning tastes. And if guests have particular dietary requirements, that can be catered to as well.
With the ‘Hill Country’ of Sri Lanka being as rich as the tea it produces, guests have diverse distractions to enjoy too. A wealth of cultural traditions, unspoilt wilderness and varying landscapes are all there to be experienced first hand and for those who refuse to sit still, there is much to explore. The Lonarch dairy farm hides high up in the mist. A quick course on tea can be taken with a factory visit to Kenilworth Estate. The oldest Golf course in Asia is nearby at Nuwara Eliya with enough spectacular waterfalls to admire along the way. The Zesta Tea Cup provides a stopover for a refreshing cuppa and to pick some brew to take home. Rare herbs and spices grown at the Carolina Spice Garden en route also make an interesting diversion.
With both the initial Mandira properties now in full operation and being much in demand, the future prospects certainly look bright for this unique brand of boutique bungalows. They also plan to partner with other bungalow operators across the country to provide their clientele a more exclusive, personalised vacation at these boutique bungalows.
With the ‘season’ having been in full force and 2011 being just around the corner, Sunshine Travels are actively pursuing opportunities for growth and increase in market share with the launch of the Mandira boutique bungalows. With exciting plans for further developments and additional properties to be unveiled in the near future, their new website www.mandirabungalows.com will also be launched for the boutique bungalows giving them global exposure and opportunities for further progress in the leisure sector.

source:http://www.dailymirror.lk/travel/37-getaways/9132-mandira-bungalows-introduces-the-unique-concept-of-boutique-bungalows.html

Sri Lanka Tourism launches home stay programme

To supplement the demand for accommodation at various tourist destinations in the country, Sri Lanka Tourism launched the Home Stay and Bungalow program adding another exciting segment to present accommodation categories.

At present Sri Lanka Tourism has recognized 1-5 star class hotels, guest houses, Ayurveda hotels, eco lodges, apartment hotels, boutique villas and hotels, and camping sites. Commenting on the Home Stay and Bungalow program, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism said: "This is a different approach to provide clean, comfortable and affordable supplementary accommodation to tourists. They will have an opportunity of an engaging experience of customs, traditions, authentic cuisine and other attractions of the location, while staying with the local host, thus giving them a memorable experience during their holiday; and it will help us to reinforce one of our key pillars in positioning, the 'Authenticity' of our tourism product". Home Stay and Bungalows once approved by the Standards & Quality Assurance division of Sri Lanka Tourism will be duly publicized. An accommodation guide listing all registered Home Stay properties and Bungalows will be issued to enable both domestic and foreign tourists to avail themselves of this facility.
The objectives of the program are to provide accreditation to the Home Stay and Bungalow category, broaden the stakeholders base in tourism, expand the benefits of tourism to the community, as well as to support the demand for supplementary accommodation in urban areas, and provide employment and economic benefits to the local community.
Sri Lanka received 654,000 tourists in 2010. This figure is expected to go up to 750,000 tourists (in 2011). The Home Stay and Bungalow program is expected to generate about 1000-1500 rooms immediately.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said "The Mahinda Chinthana has clearly identified that benefits of all economic development will have to go down to the common people. The Home Stay program will enable the community to get directly involved in the tourism industry and derive its benefits, and will further enable us to take tourism to a higher level of success".
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has come out with criteria to inspect and register such establishments and all required information can either be collected from the Quality Assurance division or downloaded from www.sltds.gov.lk .
Commenting on the new scheme Dileep Mudadeniya, Head of Standards & Quality Assurance and Investment said: "New rooms which are under construction will take another 2 years to come to the market. But we have untapped potential for Home Stays and Bungalows that can be turned immediately into accommodation units to meet the immediate demand. Further, this is a well known accommodation category in Europe, and even in India, and our visitors are familiar with the concept.''
While any private house in good condition with owners occupying the same house and located in an easily accessible part of the country will primarily qualify to register as a Home Stay unit, unoccupied houses with cooking/meals (and other guest service) facilities are categorized as Bungalows. The house shall fulfill the minimum requirements of the Home Stay scheme including having one or more rooms for accommodation, with each room having separate attached bathroom facilities. Interested parties are at liberty to submit fresh proposals for approval for setting up Home Stay/Bungalow units in suitable locations, under the supervision Sri Lanka Tourism. As part of the program Sri Lanka Tourism will also be providing a training for all Bungalow and Home Stay owners covering areas such as on-line marketing, house keeping, cooking with focus on guest satisfaction, kitchen hygiene, storage of food, garbage disposal, preparation of authentic cuisine, emergencies etc .
Etisalat has come forward to promote and distribute this concept via a dedicated portal. "In the current context, the online medium has by-passed many traditional channels and real world barriers reaching the global customer at a minimal cost. Home-stay portal will enable local property owners to market their home-stay online and attract potential tourists with just a click. In the long run, we are aiming at providing knowledge to them which will help them in improving their services and standards. Our vision & mission had always been geared towards extending people's reach via advanced technologies. I strongly believe that this initiative will be a success and we are delighted and honored to be part of this initiative to empower Sri Lanka tourism sector to be the wonder of Asia" CEO Etisalat Sri Lanka, Dumindra Rathnayaka said.
Regional Development Bank (RDB ) has come forward to provide limited loan assistance for the concept. Commenting on the program Chairperson of the RDB Janaki Kuruppu, said "At RDB we believe in Empowering Sri Lankans" to achieve economic development of their families. We are the only 100% GOSL owned bank serving the real SME sector, with a reach of over 200 service points in rural Sri Lanka alone. We are always on the lookout for ventures that will appeal to our target customers. We feel the type of household that will go for this "Home Stay" concept will be very much within the reach of our customer base and will be a great opportunity for them. This is the only way that the country's macro economic growth can be shared with the common people."
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) invites all Sri Lankans who have well located, attractive and suitable bungalows and homes, with minimum required standards, in various parts of the island to come and register with Sri Lanka Tourism.

source:http://www.dailymirror.lk/travel/38-travel-tips/9308-sri-lanka-tourism-launches-home-stay-programme.html

Kent Teacher, Debbie Carlson, Puts Emphasis on Social Justice

The Holocaust Center is so proud to be working with teachers like Debbie Carlson.

Spurred by Holocaust studies, Kent teacher puts emphasis on social justice in the classroom: Slide show of Holocaust sites

By LAURA PIERCE
Kent Reporter Editor
Sep 14 2010

It was the shoes on a riverbank that brought Debbie Carlson close to tears.

The Meridian Middle School teacher was on a trip to Eastern Europe this summer, and her tour group passed by a bronze sculpture of shoes, lined up on a riverbank. There were work shoes, children’s shoes, ladies’ shoes: a mixture of jobs, genders and ages.

The significance of the sculpture wasn’t lost on Carlson, who happened by this spot in the soft light of a summer day in Budapest, along the banks of Danube River with her tour group, while visiting sites of the Holocaust.

The shoes were the wordless reminder of the men, women and children whom the Nazis or their Hungarian counterparts lined up and shot along the riverbank. The bodies fell into the river, to be swept away by the current, their identities lost to their families and the world.

“When they were exterminating the Jews, they would line them up, and shoot them into the river,” Carlson says, of what she learned happened on that riverbank.

For Carlson, the sculpture was a consciousness-raising moment – one of many she experienced on the three-week trip... Read full article and see the slide show

Teachers in the News

A Summer of Learning
“The whole point is to activate kids,” to get them past the horror and “to understand that they are global citizens and can make a difference.” Jo Cripps is a Seattle Public Schools teacher who was a Memorial Library summer fellow at New York’s Holocaust Education Network in July.

http://www.jtnews.net/index.php?/columnists/item/7860/C7


Teaching the Teachers
Teachers Tammy Grubb and Debbie Carlson describe their experiences and impressions from the Holocaust Center's trip to Budapest and Prague in the JT News.

http://www.jtnews.net/index.php?/news/item/teaching_the_teachers/

A life-long learner's education continues in Budapest and Prague

By Larry Kolano

Larry Kolano is a retired middle school social studies/U.S. History teacher from Longview's Cascade Middle School. For over 40 years he has read and studied books and viewed films covering different aspects of the Holocaust. His formal Holocaust education training includes classes and seminars sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, B'nai Brith, Facing History, and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. In 2005 JFR awarded him an Alfred Lerner Fellowship. In addition to attending presentations in classroom settings, he participated in the JFR's summer Holocaust trip to Germany and Poland in 2008. For three years he served on the Holocaust Center's education advisory committee. Even in retirement, he conducts Holocaust presentations to civic groups and elementary/secondary classes. Larry currently resides in California.

[Photo by Larry Kolano: Memorial on the Danube. Cast iron shoes.]

For most of my 30 year teaching career I taught my students the basics of the Holocaust. Both teenaged and adult students were amazed by the inhumanity displayed by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945. As a life-long learner, I continue to explore different aspects of the Holocaust.

In 2008 I journeyed to Dachau, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz with other Holocaust scholars. In 2010 I travelled to Budapest and Prague to learn about the treatment of Jews in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Experiences of the Jewish people differed from those who lived in the German Reich, Poland, the Ukraine, and other occupied territories. Until 1944 Hungary's leaders allied themselves with Germany and successfully refused to comply with Nazi requests for Jewish "special actions" and "relocation." When faced with Hungary's defection, after the Red Army crossed its border, German troops invaded and Nazi racial laws implemented. With the assistance of Hungary's anti-semitic Arrow Cross, hundreds of thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent off to Auschwitz or they were simply killed where they were housed awaiting transport. Others were herded to the banks of the Danube, shot, and their bodies thrown into the river. A memorial comprised of bronzed shoes now exists at one of the execution spots along the Danube.

The Holocaust in Hungary was new to me. I had heard of Raoul Wallenberg's efforts to save Jewish lives, but I had never read about or heard about the collection of horrors inflicted on the Jewish population living in and around Budapest. After preparing for the trip by reading The Siege of Budapest, Kasztner's Train, and Hunting Eichmann and experiencing the European tour associated with the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and Museum Without Walls, I have a much greater understanding of the Holocaust as it developed in another occupied country.

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 4

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 4

By Rachel Nathanson

From June 24 - July 4, 2010 the Holocaust Center, in partnership with Museum Without Walls, organized a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague. Frieda S., a survivor from Terezin, and her daughter Dee (also the Co-Executive Director of the Holocaust Center) participated in the trip and shared the group invaluable first hand experiences. Eva, a survivor of Terezin who had been in the barracks with Frieda, met up with us. Below Rachel Nathanson, one of the Holocaust Center's board members and a participant on the trip, describes some of sites and shares her thoughts on the experience of visiting Terezin.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Although much has been recorded of the Terezin history, the flood of 2002 that ravaged much of Central Europe, gave rise to new discoveries. Due to the flood, a storage room within a private home’s yard was damaged by the almost five-foot high waters. All of the stored goods were then removed, leading to the discovery of what was clearly a hidden synagogue. This small room (about 15’ by 15’), with no windows, lost the inscriptions along the walls due to the floodwaters, but the ceiling painting remains. The prayers, written high along the walls, beg God to return from his anger. The remaining words of one damaged prayer now say, “If I forget thee…”

The Red Cross Visit
The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin to see what Hitler called “a city for the Jews”, a city he created to supposedly protect them from the horrors of war. The village area was spruced up and an illusion that this was a working, lovely town was made complete. Stores were filled with goods, bakeries overflowed with food, and the inmates carefully instructed on how to “play act” for these visiting outsiders. Children were given candy to hold but told not to eat it and upon a successful ruse for the Red Cross, the candy was cruelly stripped from their fingers by the guards.

A film, made by Jewish filmmakers within Terezin, shows the theatrically happy lives being lived by all the inmates. Playacting included a soccer game with cheering crowds, young women sharing their knitting projects, and other manufactured scenes. With the film complete, the filmmakers and many of those participating in the film were promptly sent to Auschwitz to eliminate their knowing complicity.

Survival
Frieda and Eva were blessed to have lived. Their survival was helped by so many small factors: the fact that as “mischlings” they were transported later and treated slightly better; that they were given the job of working the fields for the officers which allowed them to sneak a little food while in the fields and bring a few items back to the other girls; that they were strong and young – and determined.

Frieda tells the chilling story of so many girls getting shipped out on the trains and she wanted desperately to get out of Terezin. She managed to trade some things to get one of the “transport cards” for a train, not realizing she would be sealing her fate to leave for Auschwitz. The guard at the train saw her and noted that she reminded him of his own daughter. She begged to get on the train and he told her he would “break her legs” if she ever tried to get on the train again, and sent her back. What amount of guilt did this man have that he could choose just one girl, save just one soul?

Three months before the war was over, Frieda’s father, who was Jewish, and brother were also transported to Terezin. As the Soviet fighting came closer to Terezin in 1945, the Germans fled, destroying bridges and roads behind them. Frieda’s father did not hesitate. He stole a horse and cart and filled it with as many children as could fit and took them out of Terezin to Prague. What would normally take 12 hours, took 5 days.

When the Soviets reached Terezin, they had to quarantine the area due to the rampant outbreak of Typhus. Adding to the tragedy of this chapter of history, many of the remaining inmates died of typhoid fever, even though “liberated” from the camp.

I started this long account by saying I have a 15-year old daughter. I could not help but think of my own daughter when learning about Frieda and Eva’s experience (as only 2 of so many). How could I have handled her being taken from me at such a young age for several years? We learned that Frieda’s mother travelled many days to stand outside the fortress walls in hopes of catching a glimpse of her daughter, just to know that she was still alive. I stood with chills, thinking about her mother. I could be her mother.

In the end, the only thing I can do is bear witness to the story. Let this horrendous time in our history never be forgotten. I am ever so grateful for what I have.

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 3

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 3
By Rachel Nathanson


From June 24 - July 4, 2010 the Holocaust Center, in partnership with Museum Without Walls, organized a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague. Frieda S., a survivor from Terezin, and her daughter Dee (also the Co-Executive Director of the Holocaust Center) participated in the trip and shared the group invaluable first hand experiences. Eva, a survivor of Terezin who had been in the barracks with Frieda, met up with us. Below Rachel Nathanson, one of the Holocaust Center's board members and a participant on the trip, describes some of sites and shares her thoughts on the experience of visiting Terezin.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4


We stood before the building where Frieda and Eva’s teenage years were stolen, and their lives forever marked by this horrendous historical time. They pointed to the window of their once jail-like home, where they shared their small room with 30 or so others. Most of those “roommates” were shipped out over time, continually replaced with new faces, only to be shipped out again and again. So many of the teens they lived with were tragically transported to a place even darker in history: Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This photo (above) shows Frieda and Eva in front of their “barracks” during their internment.

A recreated room in the women’s living quarters:


Terezin is now freshly painted and beautifully planted with flowers. The newly spruced up town sadly belies its tragic history, from a visual perspective. Approximately 1,000 people returned to live in Terezin, but one wonders how they can bear to do so. Our guide, a young man trained in the vocation of being a Terezin tour guide admitted he could not imagine living within the walls of a town where such history took place.

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 2

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 2
By Rachel Nathanson



From June 24 - July 4, 2010 the Holocaust Center, in partnership with Museum Without Walls, organized a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague. Frieda S., a survivor from Terezin, and her daughter Dee (also the Co-Executive Director of the Holocaust Center) participated in the trip and shared the group invaluable first hand experiences. Eva, a survivor of Terezin who had been in the barracks with Frieda, met up with us. Below Rachel Nathanson, one of the Holocaust Center's board members and a participant on the trip, describes some of sites and shares her thoughts on the experience of visiting Terezin.

Chapter 1
Chapter 3

Chapter 4

The Ghetto
While Terezin was not a death camp, it was not without its own atrocities and death. The numbers vary throughout accounts, but around 140,000 people were deported to Terezin between 1941 and 1945, with an additional 15,000 arriving in the last days of the war. Of these, about 35,000 died in the ghetto itself, and about 88,000 were sent to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

The town’s original inhabitants of about 5,000 people were forced to relocate by the Nazi party and were replaced over time by about 55,000 Jews. These overcrowding conditions lead to many deaths and unspeakable living conditions for all.

It is one thing to read accounts of the Holocaust, and quite another to stand on the hallowed ground of these historic sites. And to do so with two valiant survivors, two amazingly strong women, was a unique experience for me, one I am truly grateful for. Frieda and Eva, both from mixed-religion families, noted that they grew up in a time when religion was not critical to family structure. Many families of mixed-religion raised one child as a Jew and the next as a Catholic. All holidays were observed and national pride was more important than religion.

As mixed-religion children, “mischlings” as labeled by the Germans, Frieda and Eva were told to be on the transport to Terezin upon or near their 14th birthday. Frieda was the 175th person on her transport of 175, from Prague (Praha) on June 9, 1943 as documented on the wall of the Ghetto Museum today:

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 1. By Rachel Nathanson

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 1

July 2010

By Rachel Nathanson

From June 24 - July 4, 2010 the Holocaust Center, in partnership with Museum Without Walls, organized a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague. Frieda S., a survivor from Terezin, and her daughter Dee (also the Co-Executive Director of the Holocaust Center) participated in the trip and shared the group invaluable first hand experiences. Eva, a survivor of Terezin who had been in the barracks with Frieda, met up with us. Below Rachel Nathanson, one of the Holocaust Center's board members and a participant on the trip, describes some of sites and shares her thoughts on the experience of visiting Terezin.

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

I have a 15-year old daughter. She is the age that Frieda and Eva were after spending the first of two years in a concentration work camp in Terezin, Czech Republic. But for a mere 50 years or so (a blink of an eye in the annals of historic time) and the serendipity of being born in America, this could have been my daughter’s experience.

Having been home now for a week, I am still processing all that I saw and learned while participating in a Holocaust educational trip to Hungary and the Czech Republic. It was a transformative experience, and an honor, to learn more about this tragic history from these two women who survived it. Here, I want to share what we saw in Terezin, on an all-too-brief visit on July 2, 2010.

The Fortress
Originally built by the Hapsburg Monarchy (in 1780) as a fortress to protect Prague from invaders, it is a walled city surrounded by a moat. Broken into 2 sections, the “small fortress” was used by the Prague Gestapo as a prison in WWII. The larger “town” portion was used as a ghetto to “concentrate” the Jews, hence the term “concentration camp”.

The entry yard to the small fortress still has the German labels above the doors for the various offices, where the initial processing of prisoners took place. How eerie to stand on the same worn down, wooden floors where efficient Nazi command sent nearly 32,000 prisoners through the gates to hell. On through the archway with the insidious Nazi mockery, “Work Makes One Free”.

Most prisoners were Czech and most were part of the resistance. Many were jailed for having made a joke in the streets about Nazis, for being gay, with the harshest treatment meted out to the Jews.

The largest barracks were first on our tour, used to house the upper level of prisoners. Here there were about 90 men per room, with large bunk beds to be shared, one sink, one latrine, windows, but no heat. From here the rooms got smaller, the crowding greater and the conditions heartbreakingly worse.

The cells holding Jews were smaller. In a room of about 144 square feet, there typically were 55 prisoners. Can you imagine being in a cell with only 2 feet of space to stand in, taking turns to sit or lie down? These cells had one small window high in the wall, no beds, no toilet, no heat, and most importantly, no ventilation. Without adequate oxygen, many perished of suffocation. The solitary cells further along were yet smaller. These cells held only 3-5 prisoners at a time, but the space was frightening. Only about 10 square feet, they had no windows, no light whatsoever, and those held herein would have been plunged into a world of total darkness once the hefty wooden door slammed shut on them. How many lost their sanity in these conditions?

We moved on to the adjacent building where the showers were shown to us. Chilling to us as we all contemplated the more deathly use of showers at the Nazi death camps, but these showers were innocent enough. Prisoners were given a delousing shower once per week. Since they were done in groups of 100 or so, it was an important gathering place for prisoners to see friends and learn who was still alive.

Leaving the walls of the small fortress, we viewed the home of the camp commander and ranking guard housing. The swimming pool dug by hand by prisoners (without the benefit of any tools!), was the sense that housing conditions had improved for someone. Gestapo families raised their children here, showed them the atrocities taking place inside the walls, and were able to sleep at night. It was more than I could mentally grasp. The commander’s home was a huge palace-like structure with a flower-lined drive.

Kelly Wheeler - 2010 Bethel Teacher of the Year!

Congratulations to Kelly Wheeler, of Spanaway Lake High School, for receiving the Bethel School District's Teacher of the Year award!

Kelly's creativity and commitment to Holocaust education contributed to her selection.

Kelly has worked with the Holocaust Center for several years. Last year Kelly was one of two teachers sponsored by the Holocaust Center to attend the prestigious Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Summer Insitute at Columbia University in New York. Kelly is one of the Holocaust Center's master teachers, serving on the Holocaust Center's Education Advisory Committee and a presenter at the Center's teacher workshops. This summer Kelly will travel with the Holocaust Center and Museum Without Walls on a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague.

"Life may not be as simple as how and why, but asking those questions allows us to learn about ourselves and others," [Kelly Wheeler] said. "With understanding comes respect. With respect for others there is no racism, class distinction or gender bias." (Bethel Pride Newsletter)

Thank you Kelly for all of your incredible work within our community!

Image: Kelly Wheeler presenting at the Holocaust Center's Teacher workshop in Tacoma, November 2009.

Read article about Kelly Wheeler and the Teacher of the Year Award in the Bethel Pride - Click here.

Memorializing Victims of T-4 Program: Wenatchee teacher in Germany writes about her students' experiences

By Kathleen Ralf, a teacher at the International School in Stuttgart, Germany. Prior to teaching in Germany, Kathleen taught at Easmont High School in East Wenatchee, WA. Photos by Jens Knickmeier.

This past month, school children from around Stuttgart memorialized the thousands that were gassed at Schloss Grafeneck as part of Germany's T-4 Program. The T-4 program advocated "euthenasia" for people who were physically or mentally disabled.

Kathleen and her 7th grade students participated in the memorial. The students painted a purple line on the pavement, following the route the busses took from Stuttgart to the Schloss.

“From here, all it looked like was a line. A solid, flat, purple line. I didn’t realize how significant it was.” Gabrielle M. (California)

We are all familiar with what happened during the Holocaust, but we often forget that it was not just the Jews who were deported to camps. Much work is being done here in Germany to recognize those forgotten ones of the Final Solution: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gays and Lesbians, Gypsies, Handicapped and the Mentally Disabled. Today part of our 7th grade class at the International School of Stuttgart got to take part in a memorial project called “Spur der Erinnerung” which means in German “Trace of Memory”.

Between the October of 1939 and December of 1940 over 10,000 physically and mentally disabled were gassed at Schloss Grafeneck as a part of Hitler’s euthanasia program.

Disabled residents in Stuttgart were picked up by bus and then taken through the countryside, 75 kilometers away, to Grafeneck near Tübingen. There they were asked to go into the showers and were then gassed. These citizens served as a test group for a system that would later be adopted by the Reich for use in other camps. Grafeneck was used for only one year and was later closed due to public pressure.

Over the last two days, our students, along with other students from the region, memorialized this act of intolerance by painting a purple line along the pavement from Schloss Grafeneck to Stuttgart Center.

It was cold and looking like rain, but our students were dressed warm and ready to go. They were handed their orange safety vests, paint-brushes, and stencils. They were full of energy and excitement as they coated themselves and the street with purple paint. Nikita Prasad, a student from India remarked “I felt very amazed that we got to paint part of the line but I also felt very sad thinking about these people that suffered and died.”

This was the reaction most students had; they had fun doing this act of memory together but at the same time were struck by the meaning of what they were doing.

“We all hope that when you see that line that we painted you too will also remember.” Claudia O. (Texas).

One of our first year students, Keita S. from Japan, felt this way “The mark of the line has two meanings: One is a hope that we never repeat the Nazi’s dictatorship and the other is the mark which is engraved on people’s hearts.”

For other students painting the line was much more personal, “My grandpa’s sister was handicapped, but her family hid her to when Hitler and the Nazi’s came, so she was saved.” Judith Z. (Germany)

“It is very special to me because my family is from Poland and the Nazi’s killed many Polish people” For Alex M. (Germany) this was special in two ways: a way to remember those in his family that were lost in Poland but also a way to be proud of his home town, Tübingen, for commemorating this tragedy.

“When we washed the paint off our hands and we were obsessed with our wet painted clothes. We didn’t remember. Only when I glanced out the window and saw the line did I remember.” Gabrielle M. (California)

If you would like more information on the Spur der Erinnerung the official website is located at http://www.spur-der-erinnerung.de/.

Holocaust Center Struts Its Stuff at the AWSP/WASA Conference in Spokane

The Holocaust Center's booth was a busy one at the AWSP/WASA Conference this past Sunday and Monday at the Spokane Convention Center. The conference attracted 600 superintendents, principals, and administrators from all over the state.

Lauren (the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau Coordinator and Office Manager) and I packed the car full of an impressive collection of the Center's displays, resources, and program information. We then drove out to Spokane for a whirlwind two days of meeting new people and re-connecting with others.

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth. We look forward to working with you.

-Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education

Saint George’s Students Finish Study of Holocaust with Visit to U.S. Holocaust Museum on Same Day as Shooting

SPOKANE, WA – Thirty Saint George’s middle schoolers who studied the Holocaust in class have just returned from a five-day tour of Washington DC landmarks that included the disconcerting experience of visiting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum the same day it was attacked by a neo-Nazi gunman.

The students and two Saint George’s teachers toured the museum from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 10, and were on the opposite side of the museum building just over an hour later when the shooting occurred at 12:50 p.m. They were not in any immediate danger and didn’t learn what happened until later that day.

“It was a lesson we weren’t counting on, but it certainly reinforced what they had learned about hate crimes,” says Ruth Ann Johnson, SGS Middle School English teacher who was on the tour. Her 7th grade class reads Anne Frank’s diary, leading to student research projects on topics such as the Kristallnacht persecutions of the Jews and Nazi concentration camps.

The 7th and 8th grade students on the tour took both their visit to the museum and the news of the shooting very seriously. “We had an excellent discussion about the reality of violence that specifically targets certain people,” says Johnson. “This is why I teach the Holocaust, because this still happens today.”

The students’ tours that day had a broader theme of remembering acts of violence. They had begun with a tour of Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was shot, before viewing the Holocaust Museum and ending their day at the Pentagon memorial to the victims of the September 11th attack. Now they have something else to remember from that day that will keep the lessons they learned in class very real for a long time to come.

Johnson serves on the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center’s advisory board. The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous has named her an Alfred Lerner Fellow at its Summer Institute for Teachers, and she has toured Holocaust sites in Amsterdam and Berlin on educational trip sponsored by the Holocaust Center and Museum Without Walls.

To arrange an interview with Ruth Ann Johnson about the school’s Holocaust curriculum and the students’ experiences in Washington DC, contact John Carter at 466-1636 x397 or at john.carter@sgs.org.

Teachers Travel to Berlin

On March 26, 15 teachers left for one week to travel to Berlin to learn about the history of the city and to study the Holocaust. The trip was sponsored and organized by Museum Without Walls and the Holocaust Center.

Kim Spradlin, a teacher from Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee, traveled on the trip and shared her experiences.

Ghosts of Berlin
By Kim Spradlin
Teacher, Eastmont High School, East Wenatchee
May 2009

From the moment I decided to travel to Berlin with the Museum Without Walls & the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, the anticipation of seeing this particular city overwhelmed me. I could barely control my curiosity as I contemplated what it would mean to travel to a place that held such a long and proud, yet tragically bitter history. I honestly didn’t know what to expect; I had no preconceived notions of what the city would feel like or look like, but I knew that visiting Berlin would affect me in an indescribable way.

It wasn’t long after arriving on March 26, 2009 before I took the first glance back over my shoulder. I don’t know why I chose just then to look back, but I did. I was not near Checkpoint Charlie or the cobble stone demarcation line of The Wall or the old Gestapo headquarters or anywhere remotely connected to Berlin’s history. I was just on a street near the hotel, thinking about where to go for dinner. This was the first of countless furtive glances that I caught myself making. It was as if I could just catch, out of the corner of my eye, ghosts of all I’d been taught.
While I was growing up, Berlin, East Germany was the symbol of the Cold War, a deadly no-man’s land divided by The Berlin Wall; and later, as I learned about WWII, it came to represent the epicenter of Hitler’s odious Nazi policies. But now I was walking there, in the place that had always represented evil and inspired fear in me. The Berlin I found myself wandering through and learning about was obviously more than the events of WWII and the Cold War, but nonetheless I caught myself often, suddenly looking around, wondering who was there, who might be watching or listening, and as I toured the city, seeing sights and meeting courageous individuals, I felt those echoes and ghosts all around me.

One such echo was the Geisterbahnhofs. Roughly, this translates to Ghost Stations. After the Berlin Wall was erected, some U-bahn (subway) stops were closed. Trains would pass through them, but because they were in East Berlin, the West Berlin trains couldn’t stop. The trains would slow and passengers could see armed guards on the platforms, but during the Cold War there was no stopping. The stations at Potzdamer Platz, Oranienburgstrasse, Nord Bahnhof, & Unter Den Linden were there, but not there. Ghosts. After reunification, the Geisterbahnhof stations were opened again and now they are perfect time capsules of design from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. While waiting at the Nord Bahnhof station, a lingering coldness to the air made me pause and look around, as if that, too, is a reminder of what once defined this city. The beautiful tile work, station name signs, and obsolete ticketing areas are all from that other time, all echoing remnants of the past.

Another poignant reminder for me was the collection of Stolpersteine or ‘stumbling blocks’ located around Berlin. Over 13,000 of these small stones have been placed all around Europe and mark the last known residence of Jews who were deported and killed by the Nazis. The small brass stones are engraved with the name, year of birth and the fate: mostly the date of deportation and of death. In Berlin, there are over 1,400 to stumble upon and there was always a clutch in my heart as I read the names and saw the dates and destinations for deportation. Auschwitz. Plaszow. Dachau. Sachsenhausen. It wasn’t until the last day of our trip that I noticed two such stones outside our hotel door, right under my feet everyday. Stopped in my tracks, my heart sank for these unexpected ghosts, these terrible and somber reminders of a tragic Berlin and I quickly looked around to be sure I was still there and it was still 2009.
Our group visited many powerful sights of historic Berlin, all of which touched me in different ways. Wannsee, where the meeting to orchestrate the Final Solution was held in a beautiful villa overlooking a glassy lake. The Resistance Memorial at the Bendler Block where the leaders of an unsuccesful assassination attempt on Hitler’s life were executed. A walking tour of the old Jewish neighborhood where we saw the remnants of a once active and purposeful community. The Berlin Wall Documentation Center where we were lucky enough to listen to Mr. Neumann narrate his experience of fleeing East Berlin and then helping to rescue over 80 more people.

The New Synagogue, Checkpoint Charlie, the concentration camps of Ravensbruck and Sachenhausen, the Topography of Terror, the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden; all of these sights, as well as many others, caused me to catch my breath. Some made me seethe with anger, others caused my heart to ache with sadness, while still others caused tears to run down my face as I took in their beauty. But no matter what my personal reaction was, all the sights caused me to re-examine everything I’d previously learned, to look at these historical places with new eyes.

Although there were many moments where I felt myself looking back to the ghosts of Berlin’s past, what I also remember seeing is a city full of life and hope for the future. Numerous green parks dot the metropolis as children from all different races play in the grass. Artists have decorated the remaining segments of the Berlin Wall as a way to show that creativity and individual expression can never be completely oppressed. My fellow teachers and I walked safely through lively, multi-cultural neighborhoods every night on our way back to our hotel. And every day as we traveled to numerous sights and museums we saw different phases of major construction efforts across the skyline. Berlin is a city that is growing, and changing; a city struggling to come to grips with its past as it moves bravely forward into the bright future of the 21st century. I can’t say that I fell in love with Berlin, but it sparked my interest and garnered my respect. It’s a city that is moving forward, creating a unique tapestry out of the rubble of its past.