Rabbi Erez Sherman examines<\/a> how a four-day educational journey transformed the perspectives of Coach Matt McKillop and his players, none of whom are Jewish. Their experience offers a compelling alternative to a college basketball culture increasingly dominated by transfer deals, lucrative endorsement arrangements, and the relentless pursuit of victories.<\/p>\nThe trip continued a family tradition. In 2018, Matt\u2019s father, longtime Davidson coach Bob McKillop, brought his team to Auschwitz, where Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor helped players confront the realities of Nazi persecution. After succeeding his father four years ago, Matt organized a similar experience in Germany.<\/p>\n
At Berlin\u2019s House of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi officials coordinated the implementation of the Final Solution, players Josh Scovens and Jackson Keith struggled to reconcile the peaceful surroundings with the atrocities planned there. Their previous classroom lessons had offered little preparation for standing where such decisions were made.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Sherman\u2019s Rabbi on the Sidelines podcast, Scovens emphasized the urgency of preserving survivors\u2019 testimonies as their numbers decline. \u201cWe just have to keep these stories alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Keith focused on the responsibility athletes carry as influential figures among their peers. Recognizing that influence, he argued, can encourage players to confront prejudice and share what they have learned.<\/p>\n
The experience also reinforced Davidson\u2019s two guiding principles: \u201cNo entitlement\u201d and \u201cNo nonsense.\u201d Players are expected to express gratitude to specific people each week and eliminate distractions that interfere with their mission. Those expectations now extend into conversations about hatred, history, and personal responsibility.<\/p>\n
A visit to Berlin\u2019s Olympic Stadium, which hosted the Nazi-era 1936 Games, prompted another discussion: Could a hypothetical 2036 Olympics in Berlin, a century later, transform a venue once exploited for Nazi propaganda into a symbol of reconciliation?<\/p>\n
Sherman\u2019s account<\/a> presents the Wildcats\u2019 journey as an example of how sports can cultivate leadership beyond competition. For these players, preserving Holocaust memory has become part of what it means to represent Davidson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davidson College basketball players traveled to Berlin this summer to confront one of history\u2019s darkest chapters, returning with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,190],"class_list":["post-202314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-germany"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}