American Services Academies Program 2009

June 3-13, 2009

Fifteen cadets and midshipmen participated in the 2009 American Services Academies Program (ASAP).
The program began in Washington, D.C., where students met with the Deputy Chief of War Planning for the Army and the Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues at the State Department. They then took part in a two-day series of tours and workshops at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before departing for New York to work with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.  In New York, they heard survivor testimony; took part in lectures on Jewish heritage, Holocaust history, and the officer’s responsibility in the face of genocide; and toured exhibitions, before departing for 10 days of in-depth study of the Holocaust and its professional and ethical implications in Poland.
The syllabus included study tours of the former ghetto in Krakow and the city’s old Jewish district, Kazimierz; visits to the sites of the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Belzec death camps; a tour of Jewish Oświęcim; and excursions to the historical sites of Tarnow, Lancut, and Lezajsk in former Galicia.
In Krakow, participants met with Dr. Janina Rozciszewska, a Righteous Among the Nations who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. In Oswiecim, Mrs. Zofia Lys,  a Polish prisoner of Auschwitz, shared her testimony with the group. 
Other program highlights included a workshop on the Wehrmacht and its participation in the Holocaust by Waitman Beorn (University of North Carolina) and a Why Do We Need Tolerance? session with Dutch and Polish college students from the ‘Holland Meets Poland’ exchange program (Tischner European University, Krakow) at the AJC.
At the end of the program, cadets and midshipmen enjoyed a trip to the beautiful Pieniny mountains, where they were able to see the medieval Red Monastery in Slovakia.