Another group of area teachers will visit Nazi concentration camps, this time without a well-known Holocaust survivor at their side.
Terre Haute-based CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center is leading the tours next summer as part of an annual visit to Poland. Museum founder Eva Kor died on a trip in July.
For a third year, Hoosier Heartland State Bank will sponsor the trip for four teachers. One teacher from each of the school districts in the bank’s service area — Crawfordsville, North Montgomery, South Montgomery and North Putnam — will be selected.
“It’s going to be really interesting and enjoyable to try to continue Eva’s work and her message,” said Hoosier Heartland CEO Trey Etcheson, a CANDLES board member.
Applications are due to the bank on Nov. 30. The selected teachers will be notified in December and announced publicly at the bank’s Shared Values Dinner on Feb. 1. Applications can be downloaded at www.myhhsb.com.
The eight-day trip begins June 27 and includes guided tours of the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz I and Plaszow concentration camps.
Visitors will hear Kor’s voice as they walk through the camps. Kor recorded her account of surviving medical experiments at the hands of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele on a mobile app produced by CANDLES.
“It didn’t take us long to see their commitment to continue to participate in trying to get our teachers over there,” Etcheson said.
The museum is planning a separate trip to Auschwitz in January marking the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. Registration deadline is Nov. 8. For more information, visit www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org.
