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I'm Dean Safe, a seventeen-year-old high school senior from Cannon Falls, MN. After high school, I will be attending Waldorf College in IA to hopefully get a BS in History Education.
Being I'm so into history, I have always wanted to go visit the Auschwitz concentration camp...but I don't know if I should go to Poland for one week during the year while I'm in college, maybe my junior year...and visit then?
Or...my AP US Gov't teacher came up with an excellent idea! Why don't I move to Poland for a year after college? Then I could spend so much more time at Auschwitz and other various concentration camps...learning all about them and the Holocaust, WWII in general! After that year, I could come back to the States and get a teaching job! Do you think I would be much more hireable?
But that's besides the point. What I'm asking is, do you think that it would be a wise move to go live in Poland for a year after college, or should I just go visit for a week while in college? Is Poland nice in terms of living conditions and the people there?
Auschwitz is definitely worth a visit, but give yourself more than one week to see Krakow, the camp and the environs. If you've not lived overseas before, moving there for a year (in the future) is a big move. There are great things, and hard things about living overseas, and getting your feet wet is a good place to begin.
Why not take a trip out sooner, rather than later, to see how you like it? The trip needn't be expensive, and might inspire your college career further. That would be a worthy graduation present (from high school!)
Good for you for thinking ahead and having a dream! Don't put it too far out there, though: this one is really easily realized!
My great-grand Father was shot trying to escape from Auscwhitz and my great Uncle spent 3 years in various camps ( mostly Buchenwald ) so I have been to most camps or sites of what is left of some of them ( Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Sobibor, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen , Mauthasen) as a pilgrimage with my great-uncle ( who is still alive and well at 85 , thank goodness).
Nothing will prepare you for some of the camps, the horror will truly stay with you for a long, long time....
Regarding Poland, it's a nice country, Warsaw is a dump but Krakow is absolutely beautiful and this is where I would chose to spend the most time. I am not Jewish but Jewish friends have told me that Polish people are still hugely anti-semitic . Poland will have changed a lot since I was there and it is now a fast modernising country. A friend of mine ( British ) lives in Warsaw, hates the city but says that there is virtually nothing you can find in the "West" you can't get in Poland nowadays.
If I were you, I would also go to the Wlodawskie lake region, Teutonic Knights castles and fortresses and the National parks as well as exploring some of the country's Soviet Past as that too is fascinating.
All the best for your trip.
I would really suggest studying abroad there. I don't know any programs off the top of my head, but I honestly believe the best study abroad trips are to more off the beaten track places.
This is an old thread I stumbled upon but I supposed curious people like me that stumble on it might like to know if OP got to Poland. OP, if you ever end up stumbling on this old thread of yours, please tell us if you ever visisted Poland or Europe at all in the end, it would be interesting to update us on this. I see you've become a Pastor and still reside in the US.
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