Yesterday we spent about 6-7 hours at Auschwitz and Birkenau. I didn't write anything because I didn't have words and still don't. Auschwitz was the first camp and then Nazis emptied out the surrounding towns and the built Birkenau. The total area for the three sections that make-up this camp is about 25 miles. Just stop to think about how big 25 miles is. It was 32 miles from my home in Cary to Duke hospital. Maybe that can give you some idea of the size. Just the size of the camp is enough to give you a picture of how hard it is to comprehend what you are seeing. I will need more time before I can write about it.
Today we went to the Roma museum. Those of you who know who Yule Brenner (from the King and I)is might be as surprized as I am to find out that his mother was a Roma (gypsy). They were another group who was hated by the Nazis.
After that we had lunch as southern Polish national dancers and singers enterained us and drew us on the dance floor. You have hear the saying "white men can't jump", well Americans can't polka. I have some of my fellow travelers of video tape, I do expect to recieve payment from them not to down load it on this blog.
Last night I had the most delightful dinner with a student from the University of 155,00 students in Krakow. A Holocaust professor who was orgininally from Chicago, (my city of birth) and teaches from Jagiegiellanian Unversity (the one in Krakow). We had a great time talking about Chicago, and her student Sophia(the english version)(Sophia, if you are reading my blog, hello sweet girl!)was a complete delight. I am so amazed at the multiple languages most people can speak!!!!
We leave tomorrow, Monday the 11th at 5:30am (11:20 pm Sunday night Carolina time.) Filled to the brim and overflowing!. NCCAT (North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching) has worked for over a year to pull this trip together and it ran like they put that much time into it. Every thing was first class and more! Who has tour guides who have their PHD in related subjects? The standard of excellence shows their commitment to education! I have thousands of ideas for when I get home.
I can't wait to see all those I love!!! You know hwo you are!!!
So much to say but have to go pack! Thank you for walking through this journey with me!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Friday
Today feels like we have run out of steam. We went through the Jewish ghetto in Krakow. There was a powerful memorial of an open square with chairs spaced throughout the square. It is the same concept of the Oklahoma memorial. The chairs were choosen because a survivor saw children walking through the ghetto carrying their school chairs from their school as they were being displaced.
Next stop was Schindler's factory and the camp outside of krakow. If you have seen Schindlers list and remember the camps senior officer,well being at that house was just creepy. As you looked at the balcony where he had shot Jews who were working in the quarry it literally made you ill. A home that was the SS headquarters where the basement was used as a prison is the family home of people today. Truth is stranger than fiction.
When to a castle and church (1,000 years old). So much I don't know about
Eastern Europe's history. Not enough lifetime to learn all I want to know.
I have a great roommate; She has more issues than Sports Illistrated, but we have laughed until our sides ached developed coughing fits.
On the way to Krakow our bus driver wanted us to taste Polich votka.
so he passed out shots. It was surprizingly good.
Emotionally very tired and tomorrow is Auschwitz Birkenau all day.
We have a two hour break now and then we will hear a lecture and meet one of Schindler's Jews.
I am always happy to spend money so I will go now and buy some gifts. Need a break from the intensity!
I am looking forward to posting pictures when I get back. You will understand much more.
Next stop was Schindler's factory and the camp outside of krakow. If you have seen Schindlers list and remember the camps senior officer,well being at that house was just creepy. As you looked at the balcony where he had shot Jews who were working in the quarry it literally made you ill. A home that was the SS headquarters where the basement was used as a prison is the family home of people today. Truth is stranger than fiction.
When to a castle and church (1,000 years old). So much I don't know about
Eastern Europe's history. Not enough lifetime to learn all I want to know.
I have a great roommate; She has more issues than Sports Illistrated, but we have laughed until our sides ached developed coughing fits.
On the way to Krakow our bus driver wanted us to taste Polich votka.
so he passed out shots. It was surprizingly good.
Emotionally very tired and tomorrow is Auschwitz Birkenau all day.
We have a two hour break now and then we will hear a lecture and meet one of Schindler's Jews.
I am always happy to spend money so I will go now and buy some gifts. Need a break from the intensity!
I am looking forward to posting pictures when I get back. You will understand much more.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Thursday night
Well, what usually happens when you travel....the unexcepted!!!. I was in the middle of my posting last night when I heard a buzzing and then the computer died. I think that it may have something to do with the electrial converter. It has happened to others on our tour.
So I am in a internet cafe in Krakow Poland. We arrived about 45 minutes ago!
Yesterday, I learn about the Polish uprising in Warsaw in 1944. We went to the uprising museum. I have never been to a museum what brought you into the experience like this one. I was unaware of the Polish rebellion against the Nazis. The Russians
were on there way to Warsaw and stood by by the Pole fought the Germans. The Poles, courage, determination can not be understood. One of the ways the Poles fought, was by living in the sewers. They had a replica of the sewer for you to walk through. It was completely dark you couldn't see a thing and you could not stand up!!! People were absolutely terrified as they came out!!!! and this is without the sewage, rats and Germans pour gasoline in the sewers to burn the Poles out. Absolutely amazing!
We then went to Trablinka death camp. 475,000 killed in 16 months. Only the pictures when I can post them will be able to bring you there. It is in the middle of woods. The Nazis distroyed the camp and gave the land to farmers so there are no original buildings left. I have read so much about the systematic way that the Nazis planned the final solution, but when you walk the real site words are not adequate enough to describe what you feel. As we visited the site there were Jewish groups leaving and arriving after us. They were mostly young people and I thought how much our world has lost at the death of the millions. What don't we have today?
Today on our way to Krakow we went the center for the Catholic church, but more on that tomorrow, because I can't even remember the name of the place.
Not remembering I find is a real issue here. Each place we go to, each event we experience would be enough on its own to process, but during a day we move from one to another and it is bigger that my brain can handle. I can easily pause when I go to do and entry and struggle to recount what we have done, and my feelings about it.
It is a very unusual experience.
Finding with traveling that my stomach and stuff is not happy. Not really a surprise.
Because we have had to spend so much time in the bus I am blowing off dinner with the group tonight just to go out and explore the city square in Krakow. The city is so full of life. I am very tired of pork!!! and would kill for a diet Dr. Pepper.
I have just written about 3 more paragraphs that didn't save. Techno-babe I am not apparently
So I am in a internet cafe in Krakow Poland. We arrived about 45 minutes ago!
Yesterday, I learn about the Polish uprising in Warsaw in 1944. We went to the uprising museum. I have never been to a museum what brought you into the experience like this one. I was unaware of the Polish rebellion against the Nazis. The Russians
were on there way to Warsaw and stood by by the Pole fought the Germans. The Poles, courage, determination can not be understood. One of the ways the Poles fought, was by living in the sewers. They had a replica of the sewer for you to walk through. It was completely dark you couldn't see a thing and you could not stand up!!! People were absolutely terrified as they came out!!!! and this is without the sewage, rats and Germans pour gasoline in the sewers to burn the Poles out. Absolutely amazing!
We then went to Trablinka death camp. 475,000 killed in 16 months. Only the pictures when I can post them will be able to bring you there. It is in the middle of woods. The Nazis distroyed the camp and gave the land to farmers so there are no original buildings left. I have read so much about the systematic way that the Nazis planned the final solution, but when you walk the real site words are not adequate enough to describe what you feel. As we visited the site there were Jewish groups leaving and arriving after us. They were mostly young people and I thought how much our world has lost at the death of the millions. What don't we have today?
Today on our way to Krakow we went the center for the Catholic church, but more on that tomorrow, because I can't even remember the name of the place.
Not remembering I find is a real issue here. Each place we go to, each event we experience would be enough on its own to process, but during a day we move from one to another and it is bigger that my brain can handle. I can easily pause when I go to do and entry and struggle to recount what we have done, and my feelings about it.
It is a very unusual experience.
Finding with traveling that my stomach and stuff is not happy. Not really a surprise.
Because we have had to spend so much time in the bus I am blowing off dinner with the group tonight just to go out and explore the city square in Krakow. The city is so full of life. I am very tired of pork!!! and would kill for a diet Dr. Pepper.
I have just written about 3 more paragraphs that didn't save. Techno-babe I am not apparently
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Tuesday Night
We arrived in Lodz late in the day on Monday. Our first stop was was the Jewish cemetery. This cemetery was in the ghetto. Unlike like american cemeteries these are not maintained. When I share the pictures with you, you will understand the totally different feeling you get when you are in that cemetery. The headstones are all weathered and leaning, weeds cover everything and many you can't read the inscription. It gives a powerful image of "ashes to ashes and dust to dust". The ghetto in Lodz was 1-1/2 miles by 2 miles and in this small area there were at least 200,000 people. The strange thing is that besides the cemetery, most of the old building were destroyed in the war and where the original buildings were are Soviet style high rises.
In the town square which I had my first meeting with a Roma. She would not take no for an answer. Dark and strikingly pretty she and her baby were all that you would imagine a gypsy to be.
After the ghetto we made our way to the transport station in Lodz! As you turn the corner you are face to face with a large smoke stack and the inscription is "Thou shall not murder" The directness of the statement stops you in your tracks. You continue to look to your right and a large wall with the years 1940-1945
follow you as you make your way to the train station. There are three original box cars. You enter the boxcar made for thirty feeling the 150 that were typically in a car. what made it poinent was the laughter of a 5 year old girl who had ridden her bike to the memorial with her mom. The contrast between the sound of her laughter and being in the car was unforgetable.
Then we went to Warsaw where we spent the day.
One more thing about Lodz, it was a tough town, my might describe it as american working class town. The people looked rough, stout,and serious. When you are out and about in the city you are an object of interest, but not friendliness. There is seldom a smile or acknowledgment. When we finally arrived in Warsaw that night it was 9:00pm and we were exhausted.
Warsaw in the day is not at all what you might think. The city it's self was destroyed by the Germans as the Russians approached the city. So the buildings you see today are mostly Soviet style. Hugh apartment buildings, some dull grey, others in what seems as an attempt express individuality are painted in what may seem Miami like, pinks, so are orange, bright yellow. They all have a post war clean line architecture. So as you travel the city it takes imagination to imagine that this city is close to a 1000 years old. We went to visit the famous Warsaw ghetto and and found ourselves in the mist of high rise apartments. The major events in the ghetto were observed by memorial only not by standing buildings that spoke of the history.
Within the ghetto the were approximately 450,000 people. At the Jewish Historical institute we saw a film that consisted of archival film from the ghetto. The Warsaw Getto is the title. The reality in this film makes you look away. The truth in black and white is more powerful than any words spoken. The website of the institute is www.jhi.pl You might be able to order the film. The content is for adults, but you could use clips in the classroom.
As we traveled from ghetto memorial to ghetto memorial it was crazy to be at the transport memorial for the Warsaw ghetto and see in billboards across the street advertisements for the Jonas Bros and Eric Clapton's upcoming concerts. It does a real number on your brain.
One ghetto memorial was at a old soccer field. This is where Jews were brought to a shot by the hundreds. There were pictures of post war excavations present. This field has heard many cries, but for many different reasons.
Heros of the ghetto like Janusz Korczak who ran an orphanage stay with his children in the ghetto, had the opportunity to leave them when they were ordered for deportation but wouldn't.
There is so much more that could be told, but sleep calls.
In the town square which I had my first meeting with a Roma. She would not take no for an answer. Dark and strikingly pretty she and her baby were all that you would imagine a gypsy to be.
After the ghetto we made our way to the transport station in Lodz! As you turn the corner you are face to face with a large smoke stack and the inscription is "Thou shall not murder" The directness of the statement stops you in your tracks. You continue to look to your right and a large wall with the years 1940-1945
follow you as you make your way to the train station. There are three original box cars. You enter the boxcar made for thirty feeling the 150 that were typically in a car. what made it poinent was the laughter of a 5 year old girl who had ridden her bike to the memorial with her mom. The contrast between the sound of her laughter and being in the car was unforgetable.
Then we went to Warsaw where we spent the day.
One more thing about Lodz, it was a tough town, my might describe it as american working class town. The people looked rough, stout,and serious. When you are out and about in the city you are an object of interest, but not friendliness. There is seldom a smile or acknowledgment. When we finally arrived in Warsaw that night it was 9:00pm and we were exhausted.
Warsaw in the day is not at all what you might think. The city it's self was destroyed by the Germans as the Russians approached the city. So the buildings you see today are mostly Soviet style. Hugh apartment buildings, some dull grey, others in what seems as an attempt express individuality are painted in what may seem Miami like, pinks, so are orange, bright yellow. They all have a post war clean line architecture. So as you travel the city it takes imagination to imagine that this city is close to a 1000 years old. We went to visit the famous Warsaw ghetto and and found ourselves in the mist of high rise apartments. The major events in the ghetto were observed by memorial only not by standing buildings that spoke of the history.
Within the ghetto the were approximately 450,000 people. At the Jewish Historical institute we saw a film that consisted of archival film from the ghetto. The Warsaw Getto is the title. The reality in this film makes you look away. The truth in black and white is more powerful than any words spoken. The website of the institute is www.jhi.pl You might be able to order the film. The content is for adults, but you could use clips in the classroom.
As we traveled from ghetto memorial to ghetto memorial it was crazy to be at the transport memorial for the Warsaw ghetto and see in billboards across the street advertisements for the Jonas Bros and Eric Clapton's upcoming concerts. It does a real number on your brain.
One ghetto memorial was at a old soccer field. This is where Jews were brought to a shot by the hundreds. There were pictures of post war excavations present. This field has heard many cries, but for many different reasons.
Heros of the ghetto like Janusz Korczak who ran an orphanage stay with his children in the ghetto, had the opportunity to leave them when they were ordered for deportation but wouldn't.
There is so much more that could be told, but sleep calls.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Monday Night
Sunday we traveling around Berlin! We went to Platform 17 which is a train station in the middle of a very wealthy neighborhood in Berlin, from where the Nazis deported the Jews from Berlin. (I am still unable to upload the pictures to the blog, but will do that upon return with captions) The station is still a working station and from the outside it is designed like a welcoming German cottage. Overrun with ivy and shaded by tall majestic trees. But as you look to the right you will find railroad ties that mark the beginning of the memorial. What makes this memorial unique is that the impetus for the memorial started with the people in the neighborhood petitioning the German government for the establishment of the memorial. As we traveled throughout the city, most of the memorials that we had seen we not started by the government, but by grass-root neighborhood organizations who wanted the remember the local victims. The German government for decades after the war were unwilling to confront what happened in the holocaust, it has been the German people how have demanded of their government that the recognition take place.
We continued on to the Wannsee house where 15 high ranking Nazi officals met. I always thought that the meetings outcome was the plan for the "final solution" I learned that was not the complete story. The final solution by this time was taking place in the ghettos, transports and camps. Another intent by Heydrich was to insure that these 15 leaders of various Nazi governmental departments were all on the same page and organized to work for the success of the final solution. As we pulled up to this mansion that overlooks,a beautiful lake your mind begs the question:How in the mist of such beauty that engulfs your senses,men who were so desensitized to their fellow human beings could plan the intentional distruction of a whole group. These contrasts are a constant assault to the mind in this trip.
The Jewish Museum was our next stop. It explores the history of the German Jews. The Nazis destroyed it but in the 1980's efforts were made to reestablish it again.
There is one exhibit that will forever change your life. The museum is designed with empty spaces in mind. You can interpurate that however you wish. In this one oddly shaped empty space a Jewish artist created out of iron thousands of discs that were about 3 inches thick and were various sizes. in these discs the artist created faces.
The goal of the exhibit was for you to walk on the discs and experience in the sound a feeling of walking on these discs. Being surrounded by concrete the sound of walking on iron discs filled the space. I walked up to the opening to step on the discs and couldn't. I look down at the variety of faces and it was if an invisible force held me back. All I could do was to bend down and touch the discs gently and tenderly. You could not helped but to be moved to the core. Others on the trip could walk on the discs, others who started out walking on them stopped and as quickly as possible stepped off the exhibit. Words are so inadequate for this.
So much more I could share.
Monday we left for Poland....on a bus for 9 hours arrived at Lodz to go through the Lodz ghetto, another RR memorial and the largest Jewish cemetary in Poland. More to come on all of that.
We continued on to the Wannsee house where 15 high ranking Nazi officals met. I always thought that the meetings outcome was the plan for the "final solution" I learned that was not the complete story. The final solution by this time was taking place in the ghettos, transports and camps. Another intent by Heydrich was to insure that these 15 leaders of various Nazi governmental departments were all on the same page and organized to work for the success of the final solution. As we pulled up to this mansion that overlooks,a beautiful lake your mind begs the question:How in the mist of such beauty that engulfs your senses,men who were so desensitized to their fellow human beings could plan the intentional distruction of a whole group. These contrasts are a constant assault to the mind in this trip.
The Jewish Museum was our next stop. It explores the history of the German Jews. The Nazis destroyed it but in the 1980's efforts were made to reestablish it again.
There is one exhibit that will forever change your life. The museum is designed with empty spaces in mind. You can interpurate that however you wish. In this one oddly shaped empty space a Jewish artist created out of iron thousands of discs that were about 3 inches thick and were various sizes. in these discs the artist created faces.
The goal of the exhibit was for you to walk on the discs and experience in the sound a feeling of walking on these discs. Being surrounded by concrete the sound of walking on iron discs filled the space. I walked up to the opening to step on the discs and couldn't. I look down at the variety of faces and it was if an invisible force held me back. All I could do was to bend down and touch the discs gently and tenderly. You could not helped but to be moved to the core. Others on the trip could walk on the discs, others who started out walking on them stopped and as quickly as possible stepped off the exhibit. Words are so inadequate for this.
So much more I could share.
Monday we left for Poland....on a bus for 9 hours arrived at Lodz to go through the Lodz ghetto, another RR memorial and the largest Jewish cemetary in Poland. More to come on all of that.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The First Day
After flying all night at seeing sites in Berlin, I am now at a internet cafe to post.
The first day was amazing!!!!!! We have a tour company that took us around. Our guide is a teacher of Holocaust studies and oringinally from Belgum. The detail we get from what he knows makes me realize how little I know.
We arrived in Munich and then had a connecting flight to Berlin. One of our party missed the connecting flight and didn't arrive until late today. After we ate lunch our tour started. We first visited a sight called the Topography of Terror. It is the ruins of the Nazi government SS building. It clarified that without the strong Nazi buaracracy the Holocaust couldn#t have happened like it did.
Right outside and around the corner of the Marriot is a section of the Berlin wall.
For 3 Euros you could get a copy of an orgininal visa and all the accurate stamps that were required to cross from west to east Berlin. Just to see that wall grips you. To think about the families, lives and governments all over the world that were impacted by that wall!!!!!!!
There is a famous picture of the Nazi university students having a hugh book burning. Where they burn Jewish authors and the picture shows Nazi youth standing around throwing books into the flames. There is a remarkable memorial to that in the center of a square directly across from the university and the Berlin library. In the square there is a 4x4 square in the ground covered in pexiglass. When you look in the hole you see nothing untill you look at the sides and see empty bookshelves on all four sides of the room. The poinency truly makes you stop.
Directly across from the american embassy, is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. A must from any one who comes to Berlin.
So much more I would like to share but the time is running out along with my brain power.
Hope to get some pictures posted in Poland.
The first day was amazing!!!!!! We have a tour company that took us around. Our guide is a teacher of Holocaust studies and oringinally from Belgum. The detail we get from what he knows makes me realize how little I know.
We arrived in Munich and then had a connecting flight to Berlin. One of our party missed the connecting flight and didn't arrive until late today. After we ate lunch our tour started. We first visited a sight called the Topography of Terror. It is the ruins of the Nazi government SS building. It clarified that without the strong Nazi buaracracy the Holocaust couldn#t have happened like it did.
Right outside and around the corner of the Marriot is a section of the Berlin wall.
For 3 Euros you could get a copy of an orgininal visa and all the accurate stamps that were required to cross from west to east Berlin. Just to see that wall grips you. To think about the families, lives and governments all over the world that were impacted by that wall!!!!!!!
There is a famous picture of the Nazi university students having a hugh book burning. Where they burn Jewish authors and the picture shows Nazi youth standing around throwing books into the flames. There is a remarkable memorial to that in the center of a square directly across from the university and the Berlin library. In the square there is a 4x4 square in the ground covered in pexiglass. When you look in the hole you see nothing untill you look at the sides and see empty bookshelves on all four sides of the room. The poinency truly makes you stop.
Directly across from the american embassy, is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. A must from any one who comes to Berlin.
So much more I would like to share but the time is running out along with my brain power.
Hope to get some pictures posted in Poland.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Waitng to board
We are all here in the airport. We will be boarding soon, it is a mixture of nerves and great anticipation. Due to tech problems I have a few pictures that I hope to add...please be patient. It still doesn't seem real. As hard as I tried to prepare for this mentally I am sure it will be quite a challenge.
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