"Necessity is the mother of invention" - Aesop

The Castello in Milan held a great museum with quite a few exhibits.  While these exhibits alone had nothing to do with the escaping Nazis, and arguably nothing to do with our actual study of the Nazi Trail; one exhibit provided some context to our trip.  In the furniture exhibit, there was a set of chairs that were embroidered with different fables coming from Aesop, and on of these vignettes portraid was the fable known as the "Crow and the Pitcher".  In this specific fable, a thirsty crow comes across a pitcher of water, but the water level is far to low for the crow to actually drink it.  Therefore the crow dropped pebbles into the pitcher making the water level rise to a reachable point so that he could drink from it.  That crows ability to think on its feet made it so that he could survive and satisfy his thirst.

Now what does that fable have to do with Nazi officials like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele?  Well, if you think about it, you can draw a parallel from the crow and the pitcher to the Nazis and their "Rat Line".  The Nazis knew that they needed to escape persecution from the allied forces in order to facilitate their personal survival much the like the crow needed to drink from the pitcher of water in order to quench its thirst.  The Nazi war criminals are really no different than the Crow in the fable trying to survive.  They had an obstacle they needed to overcome, so they found a way to do so.  The crow dropped pebbles, the Nazis set up a "Rat Line" with the help of various actors ranging from foreign nationals to the individuals in the Roman Catholic Church.  Each asset the Nazis came up with on their so called "Nazi Trail" to freedom is the equivalent to a pebble the crow dropped in pitcher.  Therefore, because of the need to survive, the Nazis (the Crow) and the people who believed in the Nazi ideal (the Pebbles) were able to make the metaphorical water level rise in the metaphorical pitcher (the Escape) so that they could reach the water (Argentina).

To tie this into our trial,  the Grand Jury chose to indict not the Crows, but the pebbles that helped the crows.


- Jeff Zuckerman (Group 1)

Maria Dolens bell

On the Nazi Trail has been an amazing trip with both education and fun integrated into the class. There is not one single day that went by without us learning some kind of fact or interesting history about buildings /artifacts.
In this trip we went to many castles in Italy and saw various forms of arts. I have to say that the most common muse in each gallery included religion such as Mary and Christ, but each painting was different! We went through so many art galleries that we are art-out at this point in time. However, whenever we were presented with the opportunity to go see more art such as the fiasco in the tower of a castle in Trento, we took it voluntarily because it is a great opportunity. 
In that same castle I learned more about the use of it that had me in complete shock. Giancarlo walk me through what appeared to be a beautiful backyard and translate what the stone marking meant. It was to my amazement, to find out that each rock represented the location where some captured Italians were killed. In each stone, the name and form of death (shot/hung) was engraved. They also had photographs of the actions! How morbid is that? To actually document someone’s death!
On our way to Verona we had made two more stops along the way, one at an Italian soldier memorial and another at a world peace bell name Maria Dolens. This two places had a huge impact on me because it is at the memorial that I found out that Giancarlo actually served in the Army in Italy which made me understand more his views of the military and I couldn’t believe that I set foot at an Italian Military memorial before I’ve had a chance to visit Arlington cemetery in WA, D.C. I’m still honor to learn about other country’s military and how many of them like ours remain MIA and how many of them were also KIA. We, no matter of race/ethnicity/or birthplace are all humans fighting for some cause such as freedom or other…
This brings us to the next stop at the Maria Dolens bell that stands for world peace. This bell has one goal in mind which leaves hope of someday reaching world peace as a whole. How amazing is that? I never knew such a bell existed. I’ve learned so much from this trip and I feel privileged to have shared this with all my student colleagues and staff members that did a great job setting this whole trip up.

-Rosa Chavez
Group 1

Nobles & Peasants

We have done a lot of fun things on this trip and seen so many amazing sights.  One of the ones that really was interesting for me were the frescoes that not everybody got to see at the castle in Trento.  We were given the option of going back to the castle that we had just seen to see an extra room that they don't let just anyone walk into.  We were given little audio devices and walked down this awesome little corridor that looked like it belonged in a movie.  We ended up in this small-ish room with very large beautifully preserved frescoes on all of the walls.  The audio device started out with April.  It told us that the peasants are always smaller than the nobles even if the nobles are closer in the fresco, and the nobles are always pictured in pairs or groups and the peasants are usually alone, working hard.  Also the peasants and the nobles are always separated by trees or a fence or some sort of partition.  I thought it was interesting that in one of the months one of the nobles who was a church figure was pictured with a female....but the female had a beard because it wouldn't be proper to put a church figure with a pretty girl!  My favorite month was January because they were having a snowball fight! It was sad though because one month was missing.  They think it's because it was painted on the wooden staircase cover that burned down in a fire.  The girls I was with and I almost didn't go back to the castle because we almost weren't done with our lunch but I'm glad that we did go back!
--Naomi (Part of Keni and Tyler's team)

5 Terre

Today is the last day of the trail and i have to say that we have seen and been to many beautiful places. Out of those places, I want to share that my favorite one is 5 Terre! The area has five main towns, which all have a beautiful view of the bay and there are many things to do there. 5 Terre is a most see when you come to Italy! Even though, it didn't have a relation to the nazi trail, it has history of World War 2.  On another note, I would like to share that this trip´s value outweighs the cost. It has been an incradToday is the last day of the trail and i have to say that we have seen and been to beautiful places. Out of the many places, I want to share that my favoorite one is 5 Terre! The area has five main towns, which all have a beautiful view of the bay and there are many things to do there. This a most see when you come to Italy! Even thogh, it didn´t have a relation to the nazi trail, it has history of World War 2.  On another note, I would like to share that this trip´s value outweigh the cost. It has been an incredible experience, but it's time to head back home, and share the good memories with friens and family.  I will not miss having to pay for a cup of water everywhere i go! good-bye Europe..hello America!  -Laura

Our final post!

I can’t believe that we are at the end of our trip! It has been an amazing learning experience. The last several days have been a success. We spent a day in Milan on Saturday and saw a wonderful museum with “The Kiss” by Hayes, which is one of my favorite paintings. There isn’t a lot of documented history on the Nazis in Milan but there is a lot of history still. Milan was not my favorite city because it is dirty and touristy, but there was still a lot of really cool history.

My favorite part of Milan was attending mass at the Duomo. It is beautiful and I have never heard a mass performed in Italian. I was a little "erked" by the tourists in there during the service, but it was still a beautiful place to be. 

From Milan, we went to Genova for one night and then off to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a beautiful place. We stayed in Riomaggiore, a city in Cinque Terre. We spent some time seeing the old churches of the towns. We spent a great deal of time trying to find our way through the cities as well!

We also decided on who is being charged while in Cinque Terre. I believe that we made some pretty good choices and these will make for an interesting trial. I am a judge so I am looking forward to hearing the arguments from the prosecution and defense and making our decision.

Overall this trip has been fantastic. I have had a great time, met great people, and learned so much about the Nazis and WWII. I hope that they run this trip again in the future because I can’t wait for others to have the same great experience that I had.

Eric's Blog

It has been a while since I have last posted and a lot has happened since then as well. We have been to a lot of amazing places and seen some really cool things. Most of the trip has been spent in Italy which is honestly what I have looked forward to the most. The history that we've seen is amazing and I have learned a lot on this trip. Seeing all of the places that the various Nazi officials stayed at and went through is awesome. We got to see a hotel that Eichmann and Mengele stopped at was pretty incredible and I really enjoyed that. Though it wasn't related to the trip, the maritime museum was awesome to see. I love sailing and seeing the history of it all was fantastic. Cinque Terre was probably my favorite part of the trip simply based on the fact that the views were all gorgeous and the experiences were fabulous as well. I am not looking forward to going home because everything here has been amazing and I don't want to go back to the real world. That being said, I am excited to see how the trial works out and see what the judges decide and how they vote.

What a Trip!

Wow! I cannot believe that our trip is almost over! It has been an unforgettable couple of weeks, and I have learned and seen more than I ever could have imagined. We are now in the Italian seaport town of Genova which has a unique feel compared to the other cities we have visited in Italy. I am really enjoying the large city  with a town-like atmosphere that comes with many coastal cities. Genova is the last stop on the Nazi Trail, and we were able to visit the old hotel where Nazi fugitives, Mengele and Eichmann stayed the night before boarding their ship for Argentina. They chose this particular hotel because it was just down the street from a church where they could run for sanctuary if Allied forces tried to arrest them. I am looking forward to finishing up my research and preparing for trial when we get back to Utah. In my opinion, the people we chose to indict were good choices, as they will make interesting cases for both the prosecution as well as the defense. I have loved Europe so much and I am not sure I am ready to leave yet. This trip has been fantastic, and I have loved getting to know everyone and sharing this experience with some friends. I am sure that I will remember The Nazi Trail for the rest of my life!

Caio!

--Tom