These sort of things sometimes just happen. Sometimes they don’t just happen. This one all began some time ago on a walking trail in Brantford, while conversing with a good friend about just how great my undergrad is shaping up to be. Feel free to follow along this month, as my education looks to be getting a whole lot greater.

Sometimes you just need to be a little less practical and a lot more passionate. — That aforementioned friend

For those of you yet unaware, my studies throughout the month of May will be dedicated to studying Polish-Jewish history, the Holocaust, WW2, and the millions of people whose lives and families were harshly altered, restricted, threatened, and rapidly extinguished — not because they were dangerous or enemies but because, according to Hilter’s prescribed Aryan race, their genetics were not in line with the German vision.

My studies begin at the “other Laurier” (a.k.a. the Waterloo campus of WLU — the larger and yet unfamiliar of the two campuses). This semester then, looks be a significant one, not only because of this course or the unique travel opportunity, but also considering the perpetual question facing every student at WLU Brantford: “Why Brantford?”

As an aside, reactions often also include comments such as, “oh, that’s too bad,” or “ouch! Maybe you can still apply for a transfer…,” or even “What’s there?”

Well, it’s friendly squirrels mostly.

But returning to my current education:

The first half of the semester (the next 2 weeks) focuses on the history of the Holocaust in Poland, as well as contemporary issues surrounding its remembrance both locally, and on an international scale. With 9 other Laurier students like myself, a similar-sized group from Nippissing University, along with PhD candidate, Eric Story, and course directors, coordinators, and instructors Dr. Plach and Dr. Earl, we then hope to proceed to focus more on experiential learning to study various dimensions of the Holocaust and its ongoing remembrance and memorial. This off-campus/international experience involves various guided activities, visits to several death camps, cleaning up a Polish-Jewish cemetery, walking tours, and walking the streets of the wartime Jewish ghettos, among other activities.

What follows in future posts then, will not be the thought processes of a tourist. I will not be describing many attractions or pretty sights. My descriptions may not be so refined (though, I do hope they are readable). But throughout the month of May, I hope to meet some of the people of the Holocaust, to see beyond lists of family names and the unspeakably large numbers of people that were exterminated because they were born as they were, and because ideologies encouraged hate, anti-semitism, and the ranking of humanity based on genetic variations.

P.S. I really hope Laurier’s Waterloo-campus squirrels are also wonderful critters. So far I’ve only been greeted by several hissing Canadian geese.