I'm baaaaaaaack! It's been a few years since I went international and felt worthy of blogging something (because I'm in a much different time zone than all of my friends and family.) So! In December I received a Lilly Grant that has three parts: 1) A week in NYC, 2) Creating a Holocaust Memorial Quilt and 3) Going to Auschwitz & Poland with Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor as she recounts her experience during WWII.
**NOTE: at time of writing, I have been up 30+ hours straight, no naps. If something sounds wacky- I am. Almost. Completely batty. But. Almost. To. Bedtime.
So here was the itinerary for our flights.
Lilia sent me with a trusted traveling buddy. "Mama, you have Daisy, I have Donald." I think she'll probably regret that the second she sees that I have her in a FaceTime. **Note: I was right. ;)
Here we goooooo! During the flight I (was heavily congested and) watched Hidden Figures, The Artist, and Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children.
A word about this plane: IT WAS A DOUBLE DECKER. A DOUBLE DECKER PLANE, PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Annnnd to make this Lufthansa plane even cooler, it had a front cam so you could see like you were on the nose of the plane. (Cue Titanic reference in my head.)
Flying over Lake Michigan.
One flight down and one to go! Layover in Frankfort!
We're hereeeeeee! Home, sweet Krakow.
Leaving the airport (left) and loading up the busses (right). Good thing I have ten years worth of LCC experience on group travel. Thank you, Cahalans.
And Eva Mozes Kor greeted us at the hotel, she'd flown in today from Scotland yesterday. She's a delight. She reminds me of my grandma: a spitfire, not afraid to tell you what she thinks.
Then, we had a few hours to wander around the Old Town Square in Krakow. So, my new friend Emily and I and her HS student Olivia exchanged our money and found a Polish, Italian spot for lunch. We also got ice cream.
The exchange went like this:
Me: this money?
Girl: Nyet, no. Is change!
Me: oh, ok. Some of these coins are dollars and some are change. Ok, this money? It's a 50? (the ice cream was only 6 Zloty)
Girl: *sigh* ok? I make change.
Oops. Props to you, teenage Polish girl making a lot of change for confused American tourist!
Soon, it was time for our tour of the area which during WWII was the Krakow Ghetto.
So many people were crammed into the little houses like these. Nazi officers told the Krakow Jews they could bring anything they wanted. So they did. But all of the Jewish people didn't fit with all of their things. So the Nazis told them, we'll give you a voucher to sell your furniture! But they never did. So many families smashed into such a small space.
The Judenrat (head Krakow Jews) who were in charge of the ghetto met in this little building. They were tasked with impossible choices, but were also very cruel to the Jews who lived here. The building has 1941-1943, the years of the Jewish Ghetto on it.
In the courtyard is a living memorial. 65 chairs, each representing 1,000 Polish Jews from Krakow who died during the war. It is meant for people to sit on. To contemplate what happened here; a living memorial.
University students did a project and covered all of the chairs with crochet.
This pharmacy was run by a non-Jewish Polish man. He convinced the Nazis that a pharmacy was necessary, and they believed him because they were terrified of rampant disease in the ghetto. Three non-Jewish women worked there. They came into the ghetto every day with goods, medicine, and illegal news of the 8500 Jew in hiding in Krakow with false papers. After the war, the pharmacist was named one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Then we went to the site of Płaszów, or Kraków-Płaszów, a concentration camp made famous bySchindler's List.
The memorial erected during the 60s. It is to represent the workers who were cut at the heart by all the suffering and death which occurred here.
The back of the memorial explains what happened here, which was perpetrated by the Hitlerowskich, or Hitler's followers- it's a Polish word which doesn't have a direct translation to English.
Before WWII, the site was sacred grounds: two Jewish cemeteries. But, the work camp was built on the grounds of one cemetery. As Jewish workers died working to help the Nazi cause, they literally desecrated the burial grounds of their ancestors.
In honor of the Hungarian Women who died here.
Leaving the grounds.
Then, after a very long day, we came back to the hotel for a wonderful dinner (complete with this Swiss-Cake-Roll-but-not-American-sweet-but-still-good dessert).
After dinner, our fearless leaders spoke to us about the week ahead and we had a celebratory drink in Poland.
It's been wonderful already. But I order this 31-hour-straight necessary sleep strike to end.
More tomorrow & lots of love,
Mel
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