Dinslaken, Germany

Dinslaken Germany was our first stop on the study tour. Here, we were greeted by our host families. The students

of Theodor Heus Gymnasium, the town’s high school, welcomed us when we arrived in town. We were all eager to meet one another, even if we were a little tired. The families got together and made a variety of local foods, and we had a buffet of homemade cuisine for dinner. The students also put on a show, filled with music, dancing, and information about the school’s international relations with another school from Israel.

Behind the high school, approximately a five minute walk away, was a park. This park had a memorial dedicated to an orphanage in which most of the children were killed during the Holocaust. The memorial made a powerful statement because we read a little about the children of the orphanage and their hardships in Fred Spiegel’s book, Once the Acacias Bloomed.