Nonfiction Commons^™

Remembering Auschwitz-Birkenau: Children’S Shadows, Rachel Anderson

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I’m going to share some of my feelings I had jotted down in my travel journal from March 13th, the day we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau:

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, it did not feel like I had entered a concentration camp, or any kind of place of suffering to be frank. I did not get that feeling until I was standing under the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign. That is when a wave of anguish and terror swept over me. From that moment on until we got back onto the bus to head back to Kraków, I had the largest lump in …

Remembering Auschwitz-Birkenau: "The Smallest Victims", Nichole Delasalas

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This was my first experience overseas, so naturally I was nervous. It was overwhelming to think that we were going to Paris and Krakow where our major objective was to learn more about the Holocaust and those involved. In Paris there were not as many distinct reminders about what Holocaust victims went through, but in Krakow, it was all but obvious, especially at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was not sure how to feel about Auschwitz. Was there a right and a wrong way to feel? I knew a place with such an awful and graphic history deserved the utmost respect for those …

Remembering Auschwitz-Birkenau: "Ghostly Presence", Ciara Clark

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I don't believe in ghosts, but I've never felt more haunted than I did the day we visited Auschwitz. There is so much to try to explain that I don't know where to begin. The whole way there was a long, stomach-churning journey. Our tour guide switched on a movie in the tour bus on the way there, and I am certain not many of us watched it. We had already studied the Holocaust, and we did not want to look at gut-wrenching pictures of victims taken in the place we were about to visit. Arriving in the parking lot …

Sites Of Memory: "Hopefulness", Stephanie Hawthorne

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I have had the opportunity to participate in this study abroad class twice, once as an undergrad and again this year as a graduate. As a rather sensitive an empathetic person, prior to the trip last year, I was afraid that I would be too emotional to appreciate the intellectual aspects of my experience, and I was also was afraid that I might have strangely been de-sensitized as a result of the many classes I have taken at ODU in studying the Holocaust. As it turned out, I was often moved to tears on that first trip and even overwhelmed …

Sites Of Memory: "Tallitot", Emma Needham

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I want to briefly talk about a different perspective that I have of this study abroad course; a Jewish perspective. I just want to start by saying that the melancholy nature of this trip and its experiences were made ten times harder for me because I was the only Jewish student in my class. That is not to say that this was not a hard trip for everyone, but I experienced it in a very different way. My classmates were all very kind and supportive of me, but I had no one with the same religious and spiritual connection to …

Sites Of Memory: "Some Seen, Some Forgotten", Chelsea Patten

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

When I first decided that I wanted to take part in a study abroad trip I figured that I would travel to another country, explore a new culture, eat some good food and maybe practice some new language skills. I had no idea that I would end up on a trip to France and Poland to study the Holocaust. I have been on many trips in my life, however the depth and emotional experience during this study abroad class surpasses pretty much every other trip. Admittedly during the trip I was not able to show much emotion, that’s just the …

Dark Tourism: "Rage", Jackson Blaschum

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Auschwitz was a very strange day for me. I found myself trying to control the emotions that flooded over me upon entering the camp. These were not the same feelings of sadness that many of my classmates felt, but anger, even rage. I found myself struggling to control the anger I felt that the human race was capable of committing such horrible acts of violence. I doubt that I will ever forget the various exhibits in the camp. Among these were two tons of human hair collected from women who arrived at the camp, roughly 40,000 women, which was taken …

Dark Tourism: "Wide-Awake", Andrea Schlabach

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

As I look back, when I decided to go on this study abroad, I definitely was not ready for what I was about to experience. When most people learn about the Holocaust, people say it is sad and they cannot believe something like this could have happened in the world, and for myself, I thought each of those things. But it is more than just that. While I was in both Paris and Kraków, one of the most important things I discovered was how the world reacted to the Holocaust. Paris especially bothered me.

Dark Tourism: "Antisemitism", Suzan Czocschke

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

One of the first things I saw when we arrived in Poland was a six-pointed star with a line through it spray-painted on the side of a building. That immediately sent a chill through me and reminded me of something that Esther Sénot, an Auschwitz survivor who had spoken with us in France, had said. During an emotional exchange she had commented that the current situation in France reminds her of the early 1940’s.

Reflective Insight: "No Happy Endings", Raven Bland

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I am a freshman at Old Dominion University on my first trip abroad, and I was rather nervous going into this trip. A part of me felt like an underdog, due to my age, my lack of academic experience, and just experience as a whole, but this trip was nothing like I expected.

Reflective Insight: "Survivors", Thomas Tucker

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I chose to go on the French Holocaust trip because I had never been out of the country, and I also wanted to learn more about the Holocaust. I never would have imagined that I would get to experience the things that I did. From meeting with a Holocaust survivor the first night, to seeing the Płazów concentration camp that was depicted in the movie Schindler’s List the whole trip was an eye opening experience for me. One of the best moments that I had during the trip was meeting with the Holocaust survivors. These survivors definitely left an impression …

Reflective Insight: "Lessons Learned", Stephanie Walters

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

After returning from my study abroad experience, many people have asked me how was the trip? What did you experience? Was it fun? Not many people asked me what I learned, or how I felt. The emotions and knowledge that I have encountered on this trip is a complex subject to grapple with. The Holocaust, or Shoah as Europeans call it, was a tragedy that devastated millions of families. I often thought what would I have done if this happened to my family? How would I be able to move forward after the slaughter of the people that I held …

Conclusion: Memory And The Study Abroad Community, Brett Bebber

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Remembering Auschwitz-Birkenau: "Statistics And Images", Lauran Henderson

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Up until recently, my holocaust education had been handed down to me through books and lectures. My vision of Auschwitz was represented by glossy black and white photos of shambling skeletons being led out of the maw of a wrought iron and brick monster, and to be honest, it is easy to confront a monster when it only exists in a book.

Sites Of Memory: "Hélène Berr’S Footsteps", Tonya Schmehl

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

To prepare for this trip I took Dr. Finley-Croswhite’s “Vichy and the French Holocaust” class as well as Dr. Bebber’s “Holocaust and Memory” class. I wanted to have a broad awareness of the subject before I traveled, and I felt both classes would (and have) enhanced my journey. So when we flew out I had a good understanding, not only of the Holocaust and what happened, but also some background of French history during this time period.

Reflective Insight: "The Legacy Of Holocaust Memory", Julius Lacano

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

To me, the Holocaust is the ever-present reminder of the reasons behind and the importance of the existence of the State of Israel. When in France I asked the panel of Auschwitz survivors on how they felt things were in France, a nation with a history of anti-Semitism. The answer from Ester Sénot was the most shocking and also the most telling. She said “Things today are as bad as they were in 1941.” This simple statement is one of the most powerful and somber statements I have ever heard. To feel that the state of Jews in France is …

Reflective Insight: "Emotional Metamorphosis", Robert Melatti

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

My professor asks: After seeing Auschwitz, how I continue on? How has going there affected me?

Starting with the second question first, perhaps the essence of the answer could be found in a comment that Cali, my granddaughter made to her grandmother a couple of days ago. “Grandpa seems sad since he came back from his trip,” she exclaimed. I really had not noticed any change and assumed that any uneasiness in my disposition had all to do with work and School Board and moving and the upcoming arena conversations that I am part of. It was my wife who …

Sites Of Memory: My Personal Lens, Sherry Dixon

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

I think that very early into this trip, the rest of my group realized that I like to take pictures. I took pictures of everything. I joked about running out of space on my computer because of so many pictures. Well, that actually happened! I came home after this ten day trip with 6000 pictures, which I am still sifting through. I feel as if I have been looking at pictures non-stop since I came home.

Reflective Insight: "Reflection And Renewal", Ross Patterson

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

One thing that struck me during our visit to Auschwitz II Birkenau was the actions of a flock of small birds amid the ruins of Crematorium III.

The Glass Spider, Joe Baumann

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Blindness, Mohineet Kaur Boparai

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Aposematism, Zach Fishel

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

The Serial Killer’S Parents, Afterward, Kate Peper

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Night Of A Thousand Clowns, Tom O'Keefe

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Americans And Climate Change: Transnationalism And Reflection In Environmental Writing, Brian Glaser

English Faculty Articles and Research

This article reads three American works of climate change life writing in order to examine how print culture in America is responding to growing awareness of the threat of global climate change. Engaging with Ursula Heise’s work on American environmental writing, I argue against a binary conception of cosmopolitan and provincial responses to this threat, seeking to show how ambitious individual reactions to climate change are complicated and enhanced by ways of relating and collaborating with other humans and other species.

Last Love Poem, Mary Ann Avallone-O’Gorman

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Perfect Tense, Claudia A. Geagan

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Complicated Footwork, Patricia Feeney

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Disordered, Christine Stewart-Nuñez

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

When The Sap Flows: Affection And Industry In The Maple Woods, Nicholas R. Littman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis arises from my time waiting for, collecting, and boiling sap from maple trees into syrup. I spent four months in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York working for a modern commercial sugaring operation and sugaring in the old-fashioned manner—with buckets and a wood-fired evaporator.

The narrative follows my journey as a lifelong Westerner traveling east to learn an old tradition with my hands. Instead of observing how the warmth of a changing climate was affecting maple sugaring, I was thrust into a landscape defined by cold, during one of the coldest winters on record in the Northeast. …