Author Terry Lee Marzell and her husband, Hal, toured Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps, on their tour of Eastern Europe in 2025. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Many Social Studies teachers, and also some Language Arts teachers, include Holocaust education as part of their classroom curriculum. Last month, my husband Hal and I traveled to Eastern Europe, where we were able to visit Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps. This famous historic site is located outside of Krakow, Poland. Here is a brief description of our visit there and some links to some online Holocaust educational materials which teachers can incorporate into their lessons.

The guided tour, which lasted 90 minutes, was as sobering as you might expect. Our guide related a great deal of information, including graphic stories about the arrival of the prisoners, the disposition of their belongings, the medial experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele, the meager food rations, the role of the Kapos, the daily roll calls, and the hospital ward. Our guide also talked about the selections, the executions, and the desperate  suicides when some prisoners threw themselves on the barbed wire fences, giving the German guards a good excuse to shoot them. Then our tour leaders showed us the gas chambers and the crematorium. All of it very disturbing, as you can imagine, but important for understanding the depth of the terror prisoners experienced while imprisoned there.

Through the entire tour, haunting passages from Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, replayed in my head. I taught the book for many years in my sophomore classes before my retirement in 2017.

Since escorting a group of students on a field trip to this historic site is not feasible for most teachers, I thought I would share some resources that are available online for teachers to access. To access classroom lessons available online through the official website for Auschwitz click here. Additional resources provided by the Auschwitz are available here. These are aimed at students age 14 and older. Teachers can also consult the website for the United States Holocaust Museum here.

Educators are well aware that travel is one of the most meaningful experiential learning opportunities available for both themselves and for their students. And Winter Break is a great time for travel. Earlier this month, my husband Hal and I traveled to New York City, where we visited the Statue of Liberty. We spent several hours there, wandering among the exhibits and taking in the views. An exploration of this place offers an excellent opportunity to incorporate a history lesson about this important place into the classroom curriculum.

Author Terry Lee Marzell and her husband, Hal, visited the Statue of Liberty in December, 2024. The visit prompts ideas about how to share this experience with students. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. Since then, the statue has become a universal symbol of freedom and democracy throughout the world. Liberty Enlightening the World was designated a National Monument in 1924, and has been operated under the auspices of the National Park Service since 1933.

Hal and I took the Statue City Cruise (the official ferry, and the only one that lands on the islands) from the Battery to Liberty Island. There we self-toured the pedestal area, a full ten stories up. The views from up there, at the feet of Lady Liberty, are amazing. We were unable to climb to the crown because tickets for that part of the statue sell out four months in advance. Keep that in mind if you plan to escort your students there. After touring the pedestal, we entered the museum and learned all about the creation of the monument.

After touring Liberty Island, we re-boarded the ferry, which carried us to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the country. During the years from 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived on American shores and were admitted to the country there. Ellis Island became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965. I was surprised to find a research center providing information about immigrants who were processed at this processing station. We were thrilled to find information about Hal’s maternal grandfather that we hadn’t known before! We also viewed displays of fascinating artifacts brought into the country by various groups of immigrants, and some displays of the costumes they wore in their native countries.

All in all, our visit to the Statue of Liberty spanned an entire day, for it was well after dark by the time we returned to the Battery. But we were well-satisfied with our visit there. If you are not able to visit the site in person with your students, you can direct them to the resources available at the Statue of Liberty website. You could also share this very nice virtual tour and explanatory video about the monument on YouTube:

Teachers know that travel is one of the most meaningful experiential learning opportunities available for both themselves and for their students. Winter Break is a great time for travel. Earlier this month, my husband Hal and I traveled to New York City, where we visited the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. We spent several hours there, wandering among the exhibits and reliving our own memories of that tragic day. But an exploration of this place also offers an excellent opportunity to incorporate a history lesson about this important event into the classroom curriculum.

The 9/11 Memorial honors the 2,977 people who perished in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people who were killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. The exhibits include a variety of authentic artifacts, media, and personal narratives.

The photographs of 2,977 people who perished in the terrorist attacked of Sept. 11, 2oo1, are shown in an exhibit at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

At the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, author and retired educator Terry Lee Marzell examines the names of three Chalkboard Heroes who tragically lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

While we were there, I examined the exhibits for mention of the three teachers who perished in the crash of Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The crash killed 125 souls on the ground and 64 souls on board the plane. Three of those individuals were Sarah Clark, Hilda E. Taylor, and James Debeuneure, teachers from Washington, DC. The three were selected by the National Geographic Society to escort a group of  elementary students on a field trip to Southern California. This field trip, known as the Sustainable Seas Expedition, gave underprivileged urban students the opportunity to  spend time at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, where they would work as junior marine biologists and study oceanic life. Tragically, the lives of all three exemplary educators and the students they were escorting were lost that day. I found the names of each teacher inside the museum in a display of the 9/11 victims, and also on the memorial outside.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to escort your students on a field trip to New York City, you will find the museum on the former site of the Twin Towers at 180 Greenwich Street. Otherwise, you and your students can explore the resources about the event provided at the museum website at National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Teachers can also consult the website Facing History & Ourselves for additional resources.

Author Terry Lee Marzell explores the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. This museum is where the historic Swedish warship known as the Vasa is housed. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Summer is prime time for teachers—and students—to incorporate travel into their vacation plans. Many people, both young and mature, know that travel, in addition to being fun and intellectually stimulating, is one of the most meaningful learning opportunities available. Last month, I was able to enjoy the fun, stimulation, and learning opportunities to be gained from a tour of four Scandinavian countries.

Scandinavia is a region that abounds with watercraft. When Hal and I were there, we indulged in numerous cruises, and we visited a number of maritime museums. One of these included the Vasa Museum located in Stockholm, Sweden. This museum was built specifically to house the Vasa, a mighty ship of great importance to the country’s nautical history. The vessel is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions. In fact, more than 35 million people have visited the ship since the Vasa Museum opened in 1989.

The Vasa was a warship that sank in Stockholm’s harbor on her maiden voyage on Aug. 10, 1628. In fact, the ship went down immediately after she was launched for the first time. After 333 years lying hidden on the harbor seabed, the ship was salvaged, fully intact. Today, the Vasa is the world’s best-preserved 17^th century ship.

The Vasa was armed with 64 bronze cannons and was magnificently decorated with royal and national symbols, carved and painted in dazzling colors. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

The man-of-war was built on the orders of Sweden’s King Gustavus Adolphus as a weapon for his military campaign against Poland and Lithuania. Constructed between 1626–1627, the Vasa was armed with bronze cannons. In fact, she was one of the most powerfully armed ships in the world in her day. In addition, she was magnificently decorated with royal and national symbols, carved and painted in dazzling colors.

Unfortunately, the king ordered the last-minute construction of an additional deck and the installation of extra cannons. The Vasa had not been designed to carry this extra, upper-deck tonnage. The weight made the ship dangerously top heavy, and therefore precariously unstable. But nobody wanted to incur the ire of their impatient and short-tempered king, so despite her lack of stability, the ship was launched anyway—amid much fanfare and celebration. Shipwrights pushed the vessel out to harbor and held their breath, hoping for the best. Their worst fears were realized. With the first strong gust of wind, the Vasa promptly tilted, swamped, and sank. The sinking not only represented a significant financial loss, but also cost the lives of numerous Swedish sailors—plus their womenfolk and children who were aboard to celebrate the inaugural voyage.

Among the many exhibits in the Vasa Museum are the remains of numerous individuals who went down with the ship. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

In 1956, the vessel was located on the bottom of Stockholm Harbor, and in 1961, after 333 years underwater, covered in the rich silt of Stockholm Harbor, the Vasa was raised. In the years that followed, she was painstakingly restored. Then the Vasa Museum was built around her, and the facility was opened in 1989.

The museum houses a collection of over 40,000 artifacts, including the intact warship herself, six of the ship’s ten original sails, and two of the original 64 bronze cannons. In addition, the exhibits include the skeletal remains (encased in glass) of at least 15 individuals who went down with the vessel and some objects belonging to those individuals, including clothing, tools, coins, weapons, and cutlery.

Learning about the Vasa would make a great lesson in European history, geography, ship design (and design flaws), the technology used to raise the ship intact, or the science behind her natural preservation in the Scandinavian harbor. If you choose to fit a lesson about this historic ship into your curriculum, you and your students can learn more by visiting the museum website. A virtual tour of the ship is also available.

As always, teach a great day!