Power of Place: 2026 European Summer Institute for Holocaust Educators is an experiential professional development for teachers where learning unfolds as they tour historical sites across Europe in order to transform their understanding of the Holocaust, WWII, antisemitism, and Jewish life today. Power of Place is planned and co-led by Humanus Network on behalf of JCRC and generously supported by the Minnesota Vikings, the Tankenoff Families Foundation, Allianz of America Corporation and MINNE (Minnesota Norway Education Israel & Holocaust Fellowship).

by David Reeser, Madison High School (Rexburg, Idaho) | June 20, 2026 | Kaunas, Lithuania 

In my 34 years as a teacher, I have spent nearly 20 teaching courses on the Holocaust and human rights. I have been fortunate to travel to Europe several times to learn more, see more, and experience more. Twice, I have had the privilege of bringing students and parents to Europe to learn and to visit some of the places where these horrific events unfolded.

My second such tour ended just as I was leaving to join this trip with the JCRC Power of Place. So I find myself in a new role: transitioning from guide to participant, from teacher to student. Already, I have learned an important lesson – I am breaking new ground.

Many of the places I have visited in the past were already familiar to me through the curriculum I teach, and I knew the history of the events that took place there. However, my first visit to Lithuania has reminded me of the vastness of the Holocaust and how much I still do not know – about what happened, where it happened, and the people whose lives were forever changed by it. I was not fully prepared for how powerful that realization would be.

If I feel this way after only one day, what will tomorrow bring when we travel to Vilnius? And then to new sites in Poland? To the Netherlands?

Traveling with Alexandra Zapruder, especially after recently rereading her book Salvaged Pages and hearing her insights into the diarists, was the main reason I applied for this trip, and it is already proving to be extraordinary. The experience feels like a tapestry, with each historical site deepening my understanding and then being made even more vivid through the words of those who lived through these events.

Our first full day of the tour began at the home of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul stationed in Kaunas. He and his staff helped save approximately 2,000 Jews by issuing transit visas through Japan. I knew his name, but not the full extent of what he accomplished or the lives he saved.

Later, we visited the Ninth Fort and learned more about the horrific conditions prisoners endured, as well as the murder of 50,000 Jews in pits near the fort. It is an incomprehensible reality, especially as I stood looking at the freshly mowed grass covering the site. An imposing concrete memorial stands there as a reminder, yet my eyes kept returning to that grass and to the knowledge of what lies beneath it.

Finally, we walked through the Jewish ghetto of Kaunas and saw homes, businesses, and other buildings that once belonged to the Jews of the area. We even saw the school in the ghetto where a photograph was taken of a student reading – a photograph later used for the cover of Alexandra’s book. It was an exciting discovery in a place that, to me, felt so full of the absence of presence.

I have always known, of course, that the Holocaust happened in Lithuania. But knowing something in your head is one thing; knowing it in your heart is another. Throughout my travels, I have found that being in a place where history occurred helps me grasp the reality of those events in a way that reading a book or watching a film cannot. Somehow, it transforms intellectual knowledge into human understanding, creating a connection to the people and the events themselves.

To me, this is the power of place and why I believe so deeply in travel as an educational experience. Whenever I have the opportunity to travel, I often think, “I wish my students could see this.” But the reality is that most of my students will never have the chance to stand at the Ninth Fort, looking out over the field where 50,000 lives ended so abruptly and unjustly, and asking themselves how human beings could do this to one another.

So how do I bring these new people, these new voices, into my classroom? I am not sure yet. But I do have the rest of the summer to reflect, and I am traveling with extraordinary educators who will help me think through that question. So tomorrow, I will get up, board the bus to the next site, and continue breaking new ground.