Abigail Wippel is majoring in Anthropology and History with a minor in Russian studies. She is from Hernando, MS. Abigail fell in love with history while traveling across the United States with her parents and sister on historical site tours. The Holocaust was always a historical point of fascination for Abigail and she felt a desire to understand the whole entirety of the Holocaust. Throughout this course she has come to realize that it cannot be understood in its entirety due to the complexity of the event itself and the understanding that some areas will never be known because of the lack of survivors to share their experiences. Abigail now pursues knowledge of the Holocaust in hopes that more and more knowledge about it will come to the surface over time.
Ariel Miller is an undecided major, but will likely pursue Psychology. She is from St. Louis, MO. She learned about the Holocaust in school at a young age, and decided to enroll in this course in order to build upon the very broad picture that she already had. This course helped her deepen her understanding of the Holocaust and explore more specific themes, as well as discover the importance of narrative framing in regards to the Holocaust. She appreciated discussing how memorials select certain narratives to describe the Holocaust, and the limitations of those narratives.
Cecily Hibbs is from Minneapolis, MN and she is undecided in her major. She learned about the Holocaust briefly in middle school and high school and found it very interesting, but she wanted to keep learning and gain a more in depth view of the events and people that make up the Holocaust. One aspect that she has found particularly interesting through the readings and discussions in this course is how the memory of the Holocaust is represented through different perspectives. She looks forward to seeing these representations in the sites they visit throughout their trip.
Dina Guilak is from Durham, NC and intends to study psychology and computer science. Although of Jewish descent, she was not raised religiously and so enrolled in this course largely to find out more about her heritage and to feel more connected to this part of her family. Throughout the year, she has been amazed at the scale of the Holocaust and how planned out, methodical, and scientific each and every component was. Dina has enjoyed the strong class discussions throughout the year, and hopes they will continue on the trip. She has been looking forward to being able to visit and see the sites that have been discussed all year and hopes that doing so will make the Holocaust more comprehensible. She also hopes to find out more about her relatives’ Holocaust experience.
Gina Vellequette is from Stow, Ohio and plans to major in psychology. She enrolled in the course to get a more comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust. Gina was always interested in the Holocaust as a child, and decided to use this course as an opportunity to learn as much as possible. One aspect of the class that she enjoyed learning about was other victims’ experiences. Growing up, she always learned about the Jewish experience, and had never learned that there were other victims. The Roma and Sinti people were particularly interesting since their experience is so different from the Jewish experience. Gina looks forward to seeing the sites that the class read about and have the opportunity to be in the places where these tragedies occurred.
Isabella Bergonzoli Jaramillo is originally from Medellin, Colombia and currently lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. She intends to pursue a career in International Law, and is double majoring in Economics and International Areas Studies. Her introduction to the Holocaust had a lasting impression on her, specifically the questions “how” and “why.” Isabella enrolled in this course to seek answers to her curiosity, and further explore the aspects of the Shoah that were not covered in her previous studies. She was particularly compelled by the myth of the “Holocaust experience.” The event was classified by a range of distinctive experiences, most notably seen in the dichotomies between East and West.
Jay Schroeder is from St. Paul, Minnesota and he is a Biology major on the pre-medical track. He has learned about the Holocaust through the his schooling, from late elementary school through all years of high school. He found the Holocaust intriguing and wished to continue learning about it during his collegiate years. He took this course to learn about the broader scope of the Holocaust and the overall impact it had on the world. One aspect of the course that Jay has found to be very interesting is the combination of various narratives of the Holocaust across Europe to create different memories and representations of the Holocaust in the world today. He looks forward to seeing the roles each of these different narratives plays in the sites they visit on the trip.
Mariel Liebeskind is from Syosset, NY and she is double majoring in dance and biology on the pre-medical track. She enrolled in the course to build upon the general information and knowledge that she had about the Holocaust. One aspect of the course Mariel found interesting was the compilation of events leading to and creating the circumstances for the Holocaust to take place. In class it was said that these events formed the “perfect storm.” She was intrigued to learn about how the years before affected and contributed to the history of Holocaust.
Mia Sitterson is an undecided major in the college of arts and sciences interested in dance, psychology, and writing. She is from Key Biscayne, FL. Mia felt compelled to enroll in the Holocaust Focus program because of her lifelong interest in that period of history and her gravitation toward novels about World War II and the Holocaust. She appreciated learning about the groups impacted by the Holocaust that are often marginalized in our understanding and remembrance of the Shoah, like the Sinti and Roma, as well as looking at the way aspects of identity like age, gender, and sexuality shaped the experiences of Holocaust victims and survivors.
Noah Perlmutter is from New York, NY and he is undecided for his major. He learned about the Holocaust at a fairly young age from his parents, who have many books on the subject. In school, he always found the Holocaust interesting, but the presentation of the event in school was almost always superficial. He decided to take this course to learn the full extent of the Holocaust, and its implications for the modern world. One aspect of the course he finds particularly intriguing is the dichotomy between East and West in the implementation of the Holocaust and procedures of the Nazis. He hopes to find evidence of this difference during the trip.
Rachel Berger is from New York, NY and is majoring in cognitive neuroscience and planning to minor in Children’s Studies on the pre-med track. She enrolled in this class on a whim, not realizing that it was a two semester course or involved a trip. However she became even more interested when she found out about the trip. All four of Rachel‘s grandparents are survivors of the Holocaust and she had heard stories from their experiences growing up, however she wanted to learn some more of the history to connect all four of the experiences. Rachel looks forward to seeing the sights spoken about in class as well as having the special opportunity to see the stumbling stone recently donated to her great-grandfather Leo Adler in Berlin.
Steph McCormack is from Cleveland, OH studying computer science. She enrolled in the course to increase her knowledge of World War II in Eastern Europe. She was particularly compelled by the underrepresented stories of the perpetrators. She learned a lot about their intentions and reasons for the behavior they displayed during the Holocaust. She enjoyed discussions in class because she was able to increase her understanding by hearing her insightful professors’ and classmates’ perspectives on readings that we completed throughout the year.
Talia Wazana is an undecided major from Los Angeles, CA. She had learned about the Holocaust all through her schooling, but was interested in gaining more insight about the events that occurred, especially when she went on the March of the Living in Poland and Israel. She is interested in the importance of Holocaust education and memory and representing the wide variety of perspectives that exist regarding the Holocaust. Throughout this course she has been fascinated by the different experiences depending on geographic location, religion, age, and other classifications that make each story truly unique and emphasize the fact that the Holocaust cannot be condensed into a single narrative.
The History, Memory, and Representation of the Holocaust 