Please Note:
There is also a retreat in June 2010 but it is fully subscribed! We are accepting folks for a waiting list for the June Retreat.
Bernie Glassman and the Zen Peacemakers are returning for the 15th year to the old site of the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland, for a Bearing Witness Retreat in November 2010. This retreat will include the first cohort of youth from several countries. The international youth groups will come from: Israel, Palestine, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, United States and other Countries.
Bernie Glassman began the annual Bearing Witness Retreats in 1996, with help from Eve Marko, and they have taken place annually almost every year since then.
Much has been written about these annual retreats (see Bernie Glassman’s Bearing Witness, articles in numerous magazines); at least half a dozen films have been made about them in various languages. They are multi-faith and multinational in character, with a strong focus on the Zen Peacemakers’ Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action.
Most of each day is spent sitting by the train tracks at Birkenau, both in silence and in chanting the names of the dead. There is time to walk through the vast camps, do vigils inside women’s and children’s barracks, and memorial services. Prayer Services from various religious traditions are offered daily. Participants meet daily in small Council groups designed to create a safe place for people to share their inner experiences. The whole group meets in the evenings to bear witness to oneness in diversity.
Although Auschwitz, the Place, is the main Teacher for this retreat, experienced Spirit Holders meet each day to reflect on the retreat flow, schedule, events and make appropriate modifications if necessary.
The 5-day retreat will begin on the morning of November 1 and end with a Sabbath dinner on November 5. Participants are asked to gather in Krakow by Sunday evening, October 31. The retreat will begin the following morning with a tour of Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, and proceed by bus to Oswiecim, 90 minutes away. We encourage participants to arrive in Krakow some days before October 31, to see the beautiful city and reduce effects of jet-lag.
Fees
The fee for the retreat is $1,000. Link here to pay now. Housing is generally in dorm rooms. There are a few doubles and triples.
The fee includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim (walking distance to both Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau). Plane fare and your stay in Krakow are not included.
Provide a Scholarship for a Youth Participant of this Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat.
By linking here you can make a donation to send a youth to the retreat. We will provide you with the name and bio of the youth your gift has supported. Your gift of $500 will be matched by a $500 scholarship by the Zen Peacemakers.
If you wish to donate another amount please link here and specify on the donation page what your donation is for.
For more information, please contact Ginni Stern: ginni@zenpeacemakers.com, or by phone: 413-367-5276.
The question we face is what will Shoah education consist of in the future? What will make it vital and highly meaningful in an age when students access history through the Internet and YouTube videos? We believe that continued visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau are crucial; the camps are both symbolic of what happened in the Shoah and are also tangible, concrete memorials, that affect one in a sharp, visceral way. They continue to inform people of what happened 70 years ago. They also provide a space for bearing witness to one’s own reactions & emotions as well as to the reactions & emotions of other groups, with different histories, cultures and religions, who each have their own distinctive association to the Shoah. Our 15-year experience is that this component makes Shoah education relevant and dynamic. We have now been asked to provide a similar retreat for youth. Our next step is to do a Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau in November 2010 with a special focus on youth.
In particular, we will bring a youth groups from various countries, including Israel, Palestine, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and USA,, to Auschwitz-Birkenau for 6 days. The Auschwitz Retreat will help youth, with varied connections to the Shoah, obtain a fresh understanding of the place, not just as something that is part of an old fading history, but as an event with far-reaching consequences and important, long-range lessons that impact our lives today.
Specific objectives include:
To initiate the first of a series of annual retreats for German, Polish, Israeli, Palestinean, Swiss & American high school students at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
To bring together and provide Shoah education to youth who have inherited, in various ways, a legacy of war, violence and hatred and explore what lessons can be learned from bearing witness to the camps, to their own feelings and reactions, and to feelings and reactions of their peers.
Evaluate and document this retreat as a prototype for similar annual retreats and distribute a documentary on the retreat to schools in the various countries.
Provide a Scholarship for a Youth Participant of this Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat.
By linking here you can make a donation to send a youth to the retreat. We will provide you with the name and bio of the youth your gift has supported. Your gift of $500 will be matched by a $500 scholarship by the Zen Peacemakers.
If you wish to donate another amount please link here and specify on the donation page what your donation is for.
2. Project stages & schedule.
Stage I - Outreach, screening & choosing participants. Outreach efforts through schools and not-for-profits will be made to screen and choose Jewish Israeli high school students 16 and older, Arab Israeli youth, German youth, Polish youth, Polish youth and American youth in March/April 2010. These efforts will be led by highly experienced educators, most of whom have already attended the adults’ retreat at Auschwitz.
Stage II - Preparation meetings. The chosen participant groups will have 3-5 meetings before the retreat (May through October 2010) to meet team leaders, review rules and guidelines for the retreat, address concerns, and begin to learn about listening and bearing witness. Enormous care will be taken with the Israeli Jews and Arabs to help them become one Israel group honoring religious and historical differences.
Stage III - Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz. The international youth groups will gather in Krakow no later than October 31, 2010, and then travel together to Auschwitz-Birkenau via chartered bus on November 1. The retreat will continue for six days, with return buses to airports or train stations at end of the retreat, bringing participants home on November 7, 2010.
Stage IV - Post trip Follow-Up Meetings & Evaluation/Documentation. The international staff will have at least one evaluation meeting at Auschwitz, immediately following the end of the retreat, as well as subsequent written and telephone evaluations. Team leaders will meet with their respective participants for at least 2 follow-up meetings in December 2010 & January 2011. In addition, an Israeli documentary filmmaker will edit footage for documentary and upload onto YouTube and other publicly accessible sites.
The Waiting List fee is totally refundable if no openings occur. It can also be used for registration in the November Retreat.
By clicking on the "November 2010 with Youth Delegation" tab above, you can register for the November 1-5, 2010 Retreat.
Bernie Glassman, Peter Matthiessen, Eve Marko, and others are returning to the old site of the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland, for a Bearing Witness Retreat in June 2010. Bernie Glassman began the annual Bearing Witness Retreats in 1996, with help from Eve Marko, and they have taken place annually almost every year since then. This is Bernie and Eve's first return since 2005.
Much has been written about these annual retreats (see Bernie Glassman’s Bearing Witness, articles in numerous magazines); at least half a dozen films have been made about them in various languages. They are multi-faith and multinational in character, with a strong focus on the Zen Peacemakers’ Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action. Most of each day is spent sitting by the train tracks at Birkenau, both in silence and in chanting the names of the dead.
There is time to walk through the vast camps, do vigils inside women’s and children’s barracks, and memorial services. Prayer Services from various religious traditions are offered daily. Participants meet daily in small Council groups designed to create a safe place for people to share their inner experiences. The whole group meets in the evenings to bear witness to oneness in diversity.
Although Auschwitz, the Place, is the main Teacher for this retreat, experienced Spirit Holders meet each day to reflect on the retreat flow, schedule, events and make appropriate modifications if necessary.
The 5-day retreat will begin on the morning of June 7 and end with a Sabbath dinner on June 11. Participants are asked to gather in Krakow by Sunday evening, June 6. The retreat will begin the following morning with a tour of Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, and proceed by bus to Oswiecim, 90 minutes away. We also encourage participants to return to Krakow on Saturday morning, June 12, to see the beautiful city before returning home.
Fees
This retreat is fully subscribed. We have started a waiting list for this retreat and, if you wish to be on the waiting list please link here to make a deposit ($500) and secure your position on the waiting list.
This deposit is fully refundable (or transferable to the November Retreat) if you change your mind or if we can not find a spot for you in June. If/when a June bed becomes available, our Auschwitz Coordinator, Ginni will contact you in the order in which your Waiting List Registration came in. Please be sure that we have your correct contact information.
You can also register for our next Auschwitz Retreat in November, 2010. Please click on the tab at the top of the page (November 2010) to read about this retreat. It will include a youth delegation.
The fee includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim (walking distance to both Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau). Plane fare and your stay in Krakow are not included.
For more information, please contact Ginni Stern: ginni@zenpeacemakers.com, or by phone: 413-367-5276.
We gathered as a multi-faith assembly of practitioners of many
cultures in Oswiecim, Poland, on the grounds
of Auschwitz - Birkenau, the place of personal and universal human
tragedy during World War II. There, we offered many
opportunities to bear witness to the diverse aspects of ourselves and
others.
The retreat was guided by Bernie Glassman, Eve Marko and an
experienced group of international leaders representing diverse
cultures and religious traditions. We spent most of the daylight
hours each day at the Birkenau camp, practicing periods of silence and
meditation, offering prayers, chanting the names of the dead, offering
Kaddish (the Jewish Memorial Prayer) and religious services in many
traditions. In the mornings there were facilitated small group
Listening Circles, and special programs in the evenings for the whole
group.
In Krakow, retreat check-in began on Sunday afternoon.
The Retreat officially started Monday morning
with a guided tour of the Kazimierz district - the old Jewish
ghetto of Krakow - once the home of close to 70,000 inhabitants.
Charted buses brought Retreat participants to Oswiecim, where
Auschwitz is located and where we spent the rest of the week.
Oswiecim is
located 55 km from Krakow and 30 km from the airport.
During the Retreat, housing accommodations were located within walking
distance of Auschwitz-Birkenau and had meeting and dining rooms. While walking together to and from
Birkenau was encouraged, bus transportation was provided each
morning, each afternoon and for all evening programs.
The Waiting List fee is totally refundable if no openings occur. It can also be used for registration in the November Retreat.
The fee includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim (walking distance to both Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau). Plane fare and your stay in Krakow are not included.
November 2010
The fee for the retreat is $1,000. Link here to pay now. Housing is generally in dorm rooms. There are a few doubles and triples.
The fee includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim (walking distance to both Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau). Plane fare and your stay in Krakow are not included.
Provide a Scholarship for a Youth Participant of this Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat.
By linking here you can make a donation to send a youth to the retreat. We will provide you with the name and bio of the youth your gift has supported. Your gift of $500 will be matched by a $500 scholarship by the Zen Peacemakers.
If you wish to donate another amount please link here and specify on the donation page what your donation is for.
Refund Policy
If the workshop is canceled by the Zen Peacemakers, registrants will receive full credits or refunds of the paid registration fees. No refunds can be made for lodging, airfare or any other expenses related to attending the workshop.
If a registration is canceled by the participant more than one month (31 days) prior to the retreat start date, all but $100 of the paid fees will be refunded.
If you cancel 15-30 days before the start date of the workshop, you will receive all but $250 of your retreat fee.
Fees are non refundable if a registration is cancelled by the participant within two weeks (14 days) of the start date of the retreat.
All refunds will be processed within 60 days of notification of cancellation.
KRAKOW HOTELS
The hotel prices below are subject to change! Please, check before reserving.
SASKI
June 2010 Retreat
Final registration will take place in the Saski Hotel Lobby Sunday night, June 6, between 4:30pm (16:30h) – 6:30pm (18:30h). You will receive your registration packets including bus assignments, lodging information, list of names to read at auschwitz site, ID badges, general information.
November 2010 Retreat
Final registration will take place in the Saski Hotel Lobby Sunday night, October 31, between 4:30pm (16:30h) – 6:30pm (18:30h). You will receive your registration packets including bus assignments, lodging information, list of names to read at auschwitz site, ID badges, general information.
General
Most of us will stay at the Saski Hotel which is 1/2 block from Krakow’s wonderful Grand Square - Rynek Glowny. This is a bustling market square with lots of cafes, restaurants, museums, 14th Century Gothic churches, gift shops and fabulous people watching. All the other Krakow lodgings listed are within walking distance of the Saski.
We are reserving a block of rooms at a group discount rate for Sunday night at the Saski Hotel. We recommend that you get reservations at this hotel. The hotel cost for this night is not included in the Retreat Fee.
The only way to make a reservation at the Saski Hotel and
receive the Peacemaker discount is to email
Dorota Gieldon info@hotelsaski.com.pl
Please give your name, the dates you will be at the Saski and
and say you are with the Peacemakers.
You do not have to give your credit card info until you get there.
*** It is NOT possible to receive the Peacemaker Discount if you reserve your room through the Saski web site!
POLSKI
(Similiar to SASKI, also a good choice.) hotel.polski@podorlem.com.pl www.podorlem.com.pl
fax (48) 12 429 18 10
Single: 335 PLN
Double: 475 PLN
3 person: 550 PLN
incl. breakfast - group reduction: 15-30%
ASTORIA
In Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter.
biuro@astoriahotel.pl www.astoriahotel.pl
fax (12) 432 50 20
Single: 147 PLN $49 USD
Double room: 196 PLN/ $66
breakfast: group reduction up to 10%
HOTEL KAZIMIERZ
In Kazimierz
Miodowa 16 (12) 421 66 29 (12) 421 02 30
phone/fax: +48 (012) 421-66-29, 422-28-84
hot.kazimierz@interia.pl
hotel@hk.com.pl www.hk.com.pl
three apartments (two bedrooms in open plan layout that sleep 4 or 5.
Total sleeping places 30 to 40. We always give discounts for groups staying two or more nights. We also have a conference/meeting room for up to 30 people.
Many, many books have been published concerning the
Holocaust. Those listed below are particularly recommended because they
are very powerful personal accounts of bearing witness and/or raise
complex moral and spiritual issues.
Suggested readings
For first time attendees to the Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat, we highly recommend that you read at least one of the following books before the retreat.
Ka-Tzetnik 135633.Shivitti: A Vision.Gateways/IDHHB
(Canada: 1998). (A must read - Bernie Glassman)
Delbo, Charlotte. Auschwitz and After (includes None of Us
Will Return, Useless Knowledge, and The Measure of Our Days). Yale
University Press (New Haven: 1995).
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Bantam Books (New York:
1982).
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower. Schocken Books (New York:
1997).
Fictional Novels
The Book Thief (2005) by Markus Zusak Knopf
(A war story from a child's perspective - her foster family hides a Jew in their basement)
Wilkomirski, Binjamin. Fragments. Schocken Books (New York:
'1997).
The History of Love (2005) by Nicole Krass Norton Publishers
(story of a Polish Holocaust survivor living in NYC and his friendship with a 14 yo girl.)
Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader. Vintage Books (New York: 1998).
Stones From the River (1994) by Ursula Hegi Simon & Schuster
(In a small German town a father and daughter hide Jews)