Berlin and Krakow history trip

We spent 4 brilliant days in Berlin which included visiting many important sites and museums from World War 2 and the Cold War Period.

For the last week of Term 1, 10 History students from Years 10-12, along with Mr Gosling and Khun Gen, flew to Berlin, Germany and Krakow, Poland to learn about Nazi Germany, the Cold War and the Holocaust.

We spent 4 brilliant days in Berlin which included visiting many important sites and museums from World War 2 and the Cold War Period. Highlights included the Jewish Museum which was a combination of two buildings: an older traditional style museum and a more modern conceptual building designed to elicit emotions through the use of voids, uneven flooring, bare and complex corridors. Another popular museum was the Topography of Terror which detailed the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, World War 2 and the atrocities that they carried out: a must see for any IGCSE History student. 

The most popular museum was the DDR (East German Museum) which was fully interactive and included a replica East German apartment from the 1970s.

As well as museums we also visited the Berlin Wall, German Parliament, TV Tower and a variety of memorials and places of interest.

Arguably the most popular were the numerous Christmas Markets and shopping areas that we visited. Great places to try traditional German food and buy souvenirs.

We then moved on to spend 3 days in the beautiful Polish city of Krakow.

The main focus here was a visit to the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp to learn about the Holocaust and how over a 1 million Jews were murdered in this one camp alone. It was very distressing but a place all students should visit once in their life. We also visited Oskar Schindler’s (from the Spielberg movie) factory to learn about what happened in Poland during WW2 and how he helped to save over 200 Jews from certain death.  

Krakow is a very historic city with a dominant castle, amazing churches and beautiful streets and squares.

They also enjoy Christmas markets in Poland so it was another opportunity to eat and shop for all.

  Many thanks to the students: Parima, Keira, Kevin and Yong (Y12); Maya, Nine and Pund (Y11) and

Lincoln, Rishaan and Nora (Y10) for their excellent behaviour, matureness and engagement on the trip. Lastly, a special thank you to everyone who helped organise the trip: Khun Pome, Genevieve and Ms C-S.