CONWAY — A group of Hendrix College students cleaned Jewish cemeteries and toured concentration camps during a 10-day mission trip to Poland.
The trip, one of four offered for the 2009-10 academic year through the college’s Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics and Calling, focused on building awareness of the Holocaust and Jewish/Christian relationships, as well as creating interfaith dialogue.
The group spent two days of their 10-day trip cleaning a Jewish cemetery. The Rev. Wayne Clark, college chaplain and the group’s leader, said he did not realize until they arrived what a huge need there was for this service. Before World War II, there were more than 3 million Jews living in Poland. Today there are an estimated 5,000 Jews living in the country. As a result of the small Jewish population, most Jewish cemeteries are not maintained.
The students spent two days with Polish high school students who prepared a presentation on the history of local Jews and provided the Hendrix students with a tour of the village. They also had time to visit with the Polish students and learn about their perceptions and stereotypes of Americans.
“I definitely learned a lot from the group of college students,” Junior Ben Thomas said, “We discussed Jewish culture and contemporary politics, including the recent death of the Polish president and the conflict in the Middle East.”
The Hendrix students visited the Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps and toured a factory owned by Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust and inspired the film Schindler’s List.
Each night Clark led discussions about what the group had seen that day. According to Thomas, the discussions would last an hour or two before thestudents would branch off into smaller groups, continuing to reflect until the early-morning hours. These facilitated discussions helped them to process the experience.
“It was an incredible experience - the most engaging and educational experience of my life,” Thomas said.
Other student participants included Hannah Allee, Lauren Bartshe, Michelle Drilling, Jonathan English, Elias Harpst, Patty Hill, Malena Outhay, Katie Robinson and Hayley Warsinske. Two faculty members joined Clark on the trip - Lisa Leitz, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, and Matthew Lopas, associate professor of visual arts.
To be considered for the Miller Center trips, students must complete one written application, which covers all four trips. They are asked to rank the trips in order of which they would most like to attend. Afterthe written applications are reviewed, a select number of applicants are chosen for an interview before the selections are made.
Other Miller Center mission trips for the 2009-2010 school year included trips to California and New Mexico, Bolivia and the Arkansas Delta. Trips for 2010-2011 are planned for New Orleans; Cuba; Birmingham, Ala.; and South Africa.
The Miller Center designs, funds and oversees a variety of programs created for the purpose of helping participants explore the content and nature of their life’s true calling through service and helping others. Miller Center trips are intended to give students the opportunity to expand their world.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 149 on 07/25/2010