former Warsaw Ghetto and Trail of the Jewish Monuments: Day 12

 

Standing on a remnant of the former wall of the Warsaw Ghetto

Honor to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto

The 1940s valiant residents of Warsaw were with us in spirit today. As we trudged across the soggy city I could feel their resolve to try to survive, to try to prevail, to know that "whoever fights for his life has a chance of surviving."

We learned that the Warsaw Ghetto was actually a Large ghetto and a Small ghetto. The area of the ghetto was irregular in shape and sometimes a building wall was utilized as part of the ghetto wall. We walked through the Small Ghetto for about an hour and then took transit up to the Large Ghetto; it was a massive space and our cold and damp feet were nothing in comparison to what inconveniences and discomforts the ghetto denizens faced. Truly, the juxtaposition was powerful.

The Nozyk Synagogue (yellow building) is the only pre-WWII surviving Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw. It was built at the end of the 1800s and restored after the war. 

Abandoned bombed out buildings from World War II

Some facades of bombed buildings have been rebuilt to replicate the original designs.

This dilapidated building (center) is the former Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital. The physician known as Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmidt) worked here; view yesterday's post for more on his bravery. Since it was reported as a medical property, it was not destroyed during World War II. Starting next year it will house the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.  To learn more about that, visit https://1943.pl/

Through this yard you can see another portion of the former ghetto wall.

More photos of the ghetto wall fragments:

Map of small and large ghetto and commemoration plaque.

We continued to the point of deportation of the ghetto Jews. As our guide pointed out, from where the Children's Hospital was to here was a very long walk and after a time people knew that "deportation" meant death at Treblinka. 

This is the Umschlagplatz, the place of deportation.

Only first names are engraved on this wall of memory. Any one might be caught and taken to Treblinka, the hatred was that thick. Yet, any person and all persons are valuable humans. And so we can see ourselves, see our relatives, neighbors, all in this memorial. 

Outside the POLIN Museum, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, this monument stands. It is called the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.  We understand after our intense two weeks that so many became victims of the Nazi hatred, and living and dying were decisions made by others. Humans eradicating humanity. And so whether one was killed in a death camp, imprisoned in a concentration camp, or shot on a street, they are all heroes. The ghetto heroes who were gathered, given too few rations, stripped of their possessions, and exterminated will forever walk with the people who come here to learn about them and give them respect.

Inside this hands-on museum we spent a few hours making our final lesson, an exploration of a thousand years of Jews in Poland. We realize there are many moments and many opportunities that can make or break a people and a nation. We leave here considering our brothers and sisters around the world with new respect and new hopes for peace.

This is a photo image of the rubble that remained after the Warsaw Ghetto was destroyed. Barren. Empty. Hurting. With great respect for the memories of the devastating times, Warsaw has been rebuilt. The bricks, the buildings, the parks contain the breath of the heroes. May we carry it forward.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing remains..."

🥀

Warsaw: Day 11

 

(Prof Pisarski has shared verbally a Soviet-era story of the nightclub in Kongresowa in the foreground)

When is a palace not a palace? When it is a gift from Stalin.  Completed in 1955, the Palace of Culture and Science was the only building to break the horizon in Warsaw following World War II.  Fortunately, post-war development now finally dwarfs this Soviet-era souvenir.

Skyscrapers abound in Warsaw.

We arrived in Warsaw in mid-afternoon and therefore we only had a walking tour to Old Town. While this was not directly connected with the Holocaust, we will point out how Warsaw was flattened by the Germans and eventually overrun by the Russians so there is ample connection with World War II and the Cold War.

There is only one section of original city wall remaining in Warsaw. This Barbakan was erected in the mid-1500s to replace an older version, and was rebuilt again in the 1950s following the city's destruction in World War II.

Native son Mikolaj Kopernik (Nicholas Copernicus) is commemorated outside the Polish Academy of Sciences building.

Janusz Korczak was the pen name of pediatrician Henryk Goldszmit. He was also an author and founder of two orphanages in Warsaw. He died at Treblinka in 1942 with 200 orphans from Warsaw, giving his life so the children would be comforted as they were killed. Korczak was offered freedom but refused to allow the children to suffer alone. 

Have you heard Warsaw was completely flattened by Hitler's orders in 1944? Every building you see in this photo is a reconstruction. Much attention to detail was given as old paintings and photographs were utilized to recreate these are true-to-original as possible. The Royal Castle, right, is now a museum celebrating 70 years since reconstruction. 

So now that we know something about Warsaw, I'll leave you with sights of the illuminations. Poland celebrates the Christmas season from December 24, Christmas Eve, to February 2, Candlemas. Therefore, we are in mid-Christmas season during our trip. Enjoy the views.

Auschwitz and Birkenau: Day 10

 

This a very heavy day, with visits to Auschwitz and Birkenau.  I've been to these several times and it doesn't get easier. There is no hiding from the brick barracks, the wired fences, the many many pieces of evidence of crimes against humanity.  You think to yourself, "I'll be somber, it's a good place to be somber" but then you're hit with jarring images, with emotions that bubble up from the depths of your soul, with thoughts about the utter brutality and inhumane way people were treated, and you know you will never be the same.

We talked as a class after our visit, after the very quiet ride back to our hotel. We don't understand how people could be so cruel to others, how children were considered fair game for medical experiments, how dehumanization was so carefully planned. The deliberate steps to eradicate millions of people actually succeeded for a while - but why? and to what end? If you destroy everyone you disagree with, will there be a point you'll start destroying even those you agree with? So many questions, so many considerations, so much to internalize and make sense of. In the days and weeks ahead we will still be considering today's visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau.

This archive photo shows German solders nonchalantly walking on the platform at Birkenau. One transport was just concluded, another will arrive soon. If your shift is over you can casually walk away, perhaps back to your nearby home which was confiscated from local Poles. But you've just waved people along to their death. You've grabbed their luggage, tugged items from their embrace, taken away possessions because you know these people are the walking dead. The pile of possessions left in the background of the platform will be cleaned and sent to Germany. It wasn't yours to take, and it isn't yours to give to Germans. So much is wrong here.

Did you really need to remove all these things from the victims? You killed them; did you also need to shear their hair, pull their gold teeth, take all their clothes and their kitchen accessories?

Pause to connect with these female victims of Auschwitz. Top row: a teacher, a Ph.D., and two uncategorized professions. Bottom row: uncategorized profession, a chemical engineer, a teacher, a farmer. No one survived for more than five months.

Before we left Auschwitz I the Drake University students presented flowers at the death wall. Watch the special presentation here: https://youtu.be/fcg7tSgo9-4

Here are some photos from the presentation:

Once we moved to Birkenau, we knew prisoners there were condemned to death. There is no way to survive Birkenau, except at liberation.

We ask ourselves, what of this warning? What is the world's status now? Where are we going and how can we be a herald call?

We leave here carrying things in our hearts that will take a lot of processing. We know mankind's inhumane possibilities, we know ugly brutality, and for this knowledge we will require a bit of space, some time, and encouragement to applying this knowledge to the future.

In written form, here is the speech given by the Drake students at Auschwitz's death wall: