Excursions / Travel - January Term 2019

AIFS also organizes the following weekend excursion:

Day Trip to Potsdam

Included in program fee

Potsdam (one of the largest UNESCO World Heritage sites in Germany) is undoubtedly one of the country's most picturesque cities, located just a short distance from Berlin on the Havel River. The former Prussian royal seat attracts many visitors with its amazing architecture and wealth of palaces and landscaped gardens including Palace Sanssouci, Palace Cecilienhof (Potsdam Conference site during WWII) and Chinese House. With over 2,000 listed buildings, you can also explore the different historic areas in the city such as the Russian Colony and the Dutch Quarter.

Memorial Site Sachsenhausen (former concentration camp) (half day trip)

Included in program fee

Constructed in 1936, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp became a “model camp” in the concentration camp system. The SS administration center for all concentration camps was also located here. Until 1945, more than 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen; tens of thousands died from hunger, sickness, forced labor and abuse, or were victims of systematic extermination. More than 3,000 prisoners who remained in the camp were freed on the 22nd and 23rd of April, 1945 by Soviet and Polish soldiers. The camp was used from 1945 to 1950 as a Soviet Special Camp. 60,000 people were imprisoned in these barracks by the Soviet Secret Service; around 12,000 of them died of hunger and sickness. In 1961, the Sachsenhausen Memorial Site was opened. There is a permanent exhibition covering diverse aspects of the historical location: Jewish Prisoners, The Prisoners “Daily Life”, Medical Care and Crimes, Murder and Mass Murder, Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, Soviet Special Camp.

Optional Excursion to Warsaw, Poland (3 days - $495)

Warsaw, the capital of Poland, offers visitors a rebuilt gem of an old town. Almost completely destroyed during WWII it has been beautifully and laboriously reconstructed and placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The diverse architecture of socialist concrete buildings, modern skyscrapers and restored Gothic palaces tells its own story of the history and culture of this great city.

Travel by train from Berlin to Warsaw. Take a guided tour of the old town of Warsaw, walk along the Royal Route and visit the market square. Overnight in Warsaw. The next day, visit the Warsaw Uprising Museum. You will have free time to explore the Warsaw Ghetto, the Palace of Culture and Science and take in the town. On day three, visit the Museum of the History of Polish Jews before returning to Berlin.

Fee includes: accommodation, breakfast, transportation, sightseeing and entrances as indicated but not lunch or dinner. A minimum of 10 students is required for the tour to run.

Dates and itineraries are tentative and subject to change.