NSHS Prague Spring

Since 1990, the Newton South History Department has led a trip to Prague and Berlin. The trip has evolved over the years as various teachers have led the trip, and after a brief hiatus between 2019 and 2023, the historic trip is back! Prague Spring is a South tradition that has challenged and shaped the worldviews of hundreds of students through the decades. Student attendees see history through the eyes of the oppressed in the city squares and town centers of historic events, grappling with their questions and insights with fellow students and trip leaders as they walk across these iconic cities. Sites include Prague’s Old Town Square, St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle, the Museum of Communism, Prague’s Jewish Quarter including the Old and New Synagogues and the Jewish Cemetery, Wenceslas Square, Lidice and the Museum; Dresden’s town center, including the Frauenkirche; Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Treptow Soviet War Memorial, Hackescher Markt, Markthalle Neun, and the Bundestag Building.

Students wake up between 7:30 and 8:00, fuel up with the hotel breakfast, and we’re out the door by 9:00am. From there, the days vary: our first stop might be a walk up Petrin Hill to visit St. Vitus Cathedral, or it could be a ride on the U-Bahn to a Soviet war memorial in East Berlin. Every day, we attempt to address a theme (how does public memory work? How do societies memorialize their past? What does it look like to resist oppression?), and as a group, we visit public places - memorials, public squares, synagogues, churches, houses of government, museums - to both study the historical material present in those locations and then discuss our reflections. Occasionally, students are asked to find a quiet place in a public park to read something that will prepare them for our next stop; on at least one occasion, students are asked to listen to a song at a particular site to more fully access the human story there. Meals are enjoyed together and attempt to expose students to the culture of their host countries. Although the content of the trip can be heavy, the mood is always joyful: from exploration, from camaraderie, from the thrill of experiencing something new together.