Wieliczka Salt Mine & Final Dinner

Submitted by Anne- Marie Fitzgerald

Our Last Evening Together

As we gathered on our final evening together in Poland in a the Wielicza Salt Mine – somewhat of an iconoclastic setting to all that we had been experiencing over the previous 10 days -- we continued to talk amongst ourselves to understand what each of us had experienced both individually and as a group. We discussed what these experiences would mean for us once we were home, in our routines and how those routines might be interrupted/adapted to accommodate that learning, and most importantly the shifts that our own personal narratives had taken. 

Marc asked those of us who wanted to share our reflections with the group and as so many of us did, heads around the room nodded in agreement and understanding.  The thoughts below capture just some of our emotional and intellectual experiences.

“How often as adults do we get to work and learn together in such a substantive, deep and change provoking way.”

“I am personally grateful for the people that I was able to travel with on this journey and their care for me we traveled together.”

“The stories we have seen are beyond imagination and we all have known them in abstraction.  This trip brought the abstract to reality and so much for the better.

“There is so much time needed to process all that we have seen and learned and to understand how our own thoughts and beliefs have changed.”

“This was such a highly personal trip for me.  I was fearful of the challenge, but the group’s support helped me so much.  I feel as if I am taking the memories of those who died, home with me.”

“This experience will make us better ambassadors for the work of the organization – helping people to explore their own identities and the lessons of history.”

“Their memory could so easily be forgotten.  It makes me want to go back and fight for their memory.”

“I can’t imagine learning more in a week.”

“I am trying to figure out all that we have absorbed and how to be respectful of that new knowledge.”

“I am re-finding my own identity and challenging everything that I had thought about Poland by and large.  I am now a proud Polish Jew.”

“I wonder about what the work left to do is.”

And, finally and perhaps most importantly… “This deep experience is the beginning of something.”

 

Memory and Memorialization – Confronting the Past in Small Villages Outside of Krakow with Jonathon Webber

Submitted by Wayde Grinstead
 

During this trip, a shorthand emerged amongst the staff to describe much of our learning about Poland, and Jewish history there. That shorthand, 'complicated narrative', may feel simplistic, but it is apt in many of our sessions and explorations. This was no less true in our daylong trip with Jonathan Webber to visit the Polish countryside. 

What do these towns know of their Jewish past? It's a question we confronted at a few different junctures, and is especially important considering many of these towns and villages, who were once upwards of 70% Jewish, now lack any Jewish population whatsoever, in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust. 

While our day had many facets, they all revolved around Webber's efforts to both research and promote the connection to a Jewish past in the town of Brzostek, where Webber traces his family roots. 

The first leg of the trip served as a good metaphor for the relationship between smaller Polish villages and their awareness of the layers of their past. Near Brzostek, next to his roadside restaurant, a local man created a miniature version of what life in a Polish village in the not-so-distant past would have been like. Farmers, straw thatched roofs, a church, and a Roma caravan had all been part of this display. When Jonathan Webber first saw this, he pointed out to the man that the model, while informative and endearing, lacked a centerpiece for most small Polish villages: a synagogue, as part of the shtetl. The restaurant owner/model-maker replied that it would be done within the year. And he was true to this word, as a year later, the model village indeed included a synagogue, which we saw, on our visit. As an oversimplified metaphor, it might suggest that, for many Poles, the exclusion of their knowledge of some of their history may just be a simple lack of awareness, not a deliberate omission. 

As with much else during our trip, the history we explored during the rest of our day touched on both apex and nadir of human behavior. 

Nadir:

The darkness contemplated while visiting Treblinka and Auschwitz are difficult to put in to words. To think about how the human mind created such industrialized, dehumanized spaces, and to consider the thoughts of the families arriving and being separated in a moment's notice....

And yet, while we confronted those ideas in visits to those respective places, I was not prepared when confronting a different kind of horror: the families, and groups in the hundreds, marched out of towns like Brzostek, into the woods, miles outside of town, up hillsides, into solitary spaces, devoid of sounds except for birds, and the wind in the trees. Recreating the last parts of these walks, including that of Jan Janton, a Righteous Gentile who was marched out to the woods and shot along with the Fisch family, whom he had tried to protect, until he, and they, were betrayed. Those wooded spaces, with memorials due to the efforts of those like Webber, were daunting to contemplate in ways that were similar to, and quite different from, the spaces at the camps. 

Apex:

The Jewish cemetery in Brzostek, devoid of headstones since the war, was largely unrecognized by those in the town. But Webber pointed out that farmers would avoid plowing in the location, knowing, at least loosely, of it's past. Webber, with others, civically advocated not only for signs acknowledging the past Jewish presence in the town, but also to reconsecrate the cemetery. This included building a fence around the cemetery, with considerations about making sure the fence looked similar to that of the adjoining property a business. (This was done both to respect the neighbor, and to acknowledge that the cemetery continued under that businesses' property.) 

When townspeople saw the fence erected, and recognized that the space was being reconsecrated, they began to bring in headstones, which had been in their homes, basements, barns, and other areas (and in stark contrast to the narrative we saw in the film "Aftermath".) To know that the headstones in the cemetery were the originals, albeit perhaps not in their original locations returned by locals, and that the space would be clearly marked for the town to visit and remember, is reassuring. 

Near the conclusion of the day, we met with the mayor of Brzostek, who reminded us of the importance, ultimately, not just of respect of each other regardless of religion or culture or nationality, but because of our shared humanity. That, along with the "Choosing to Participate"-like persistent advocacy on the part of Jonathan Webber, not only to reconsecrate forgotten cemeteries, but also to get street signs and local maps to acknowledge these spaces, were a great way to close the layered stories of our week together.

The creator of the miniature village next to the recently added Jewish cemetery.

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Webber sharing insights and leading a ceremony at the recently reconsecrated Brzostek Jewish cemetery.

The group with Jonathan Webber at a new memorial at a secluded spot in the woods where hundreds of Jews from Brzostek were shot by the Nazis.

City of Krakow Historical Museum – Oscar Schindler’s Enamel Factory “Krakow Under Nazi Occupation, 1939 to 1945”

Submitted by Steven Becton

 The  drive/walk to get to it is very interesting passing numerous buildings with wall plaques and the  Ghetto Heroes square is nearby.  Upon entering the Factory Museum the  first thing our very capable guide said was  that this  is NOT  about the story of  Oskar Schindler but is  all about  life in Poland before, during, and after  World war II.  I was at first disappointed but eventually my disappointment turned to pleasantly surprised. I thought visiting the Factory would be about the life and actions of Oscar Schindler.  I wanted to see if the famed film had gotten the facts right.  I thought at this point on the trip that I had heard enough and would not learn much more here.  Boy was I wrong.  This is a very informative museum with lots to look at.   Just looking at the incredible original Nazi  artifacts one could slip into thinking this was some kind of tribute to the Nazis.  But its really about the Poland's triumph over Nazi occupation and then communism.  The most moving room for me was the one  that listed all the names of the people that survived because of the List.  There was Rena Ferber (Rena Finder) who we at Facing History know very well. It was so moving to see a known survivors name.  The only real focus on Oscar was a replicable of his office.

 The museum provides quite a detailed and intimate history from prior to the occupation by the Nazis to the end of that occupation, and beginning of communist occupation. The pictures of some of those who worked at the Factory  along with interviews of some of them is very moving. The hardships endured and the random acts of horror and kindness become very real as you read and listen to them. This is definitely a good prelude to or a follow up to  a visit to Auschwitz. It  suggests the worst and the best of humanity and is well worth the two hours to visit.

Rethinking Poles and Jews

Submitted by Jeremy Nesoff

Rethinking Poles and Jews -  with Annamaria Orla-Bukowska , a social anthropologist in the Institute of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her general field of research is majority-minority relations but her specialization is Polish Christian-Polish Jewish relations. One of her most recent publications is Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future (co-edited with Robert Cherry, Rowman&Littlefield, 2007). Annamaria's lecture focused on her personal and academic understanding of historical and contemporary Polish-Jewish relations.  As in the chapter from her book (see above) that we read before our trip, she is very concerned with improving the understanding of antisemitism today in order to improve Polish-Jewish relations.  She wrote: "...in Poland, starting in the early 1980's and at an increasing tempo since 1989, society has been tackling the difficult and dishonorable issues of the relations - before, during and after the war - between Polish Christians and Polish Jews."  Her work tries to take these "...incronguent perceptions in hand" by examining "..the impressions of Jewish Americans about non-Jewish Poles and the interactions - both negative and positive - between Americans of ethnic Polish and ethnic Jewish descent." She framed her talk with a poem by Kazimierz Wierzyński title "LEKCJA KONWERSACJI" which she translated in part as follows Conversation Lesson(1936)

Don't speak about Poles and Jews it's a minefield

Don't speak about Poles and Ukrainians it's a minefield

Don't speak about Poles and Czechs it's a minefield

Don't talk about Poles and Lithuanians it's a minefield

Don't step on a minefield you'll blow up it's a minefield

She emphasized that even though Poland had a multicultural past before 1939, it was not an easy co-existence and not just a problem with Poles and Jews, but also the other national-ethnic minorities.  Annamaria narrated her personal story by sharing artifacts, including illegal publications from the communist era, that showed how some Poles were willing to step in the minefield and address on of their society's biggest taboos when it was least convenient and potentially dangerous.

Challenges, Obstacles, and New Developments in Coming to Terms with Collective Memory of the Holocaust in Education and Beyond in Post-1989 Poland

Submitted by Karen Murphy

This afternoon we enjoyed a thoughtful and engaging presentation by Dr. Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, the Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kracow, Poland, on Holocaust education within Poland.  Dr. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs talked about education in the informal and formal sectors, including the work of museums, memorial sites, ngos and teachers in schools. For 45 years there was silence about Jewish subjects in schools, the media and in general in Poland. Over the last 25 years, things have changed markedly.

There is interest in Holocaust education and increasingly the summer course that Dr. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs offers is over-subscribed and has been for the past nine years.  Also, teachers regularly take their students to Auschwitz and other museums and memorial sites. However, the actual teaching of the history of the Holocaust in Poland is very uneven.  Teachers are afraid to teach about the dark moments in Poland’s past. They lack confidence and training to do this well, and, they still primarily teach the dominant narrative, which is one of Polish victimization.

There are many challenges in both the informal and formal sectors. Often teachers visit museums and memorial sites looking to the educators there to “teach” the students, while the museum educators are looking to the teachers to have done pre-work prior to the visit.  Also, there is little space for reflection in these spaces. Students are often rushed through exhibitions and most sites lack seminar spaces for debriefing.  Meanwhile students are craving interactivity, reflection and substantive engagement.

In the formal sector, teachers are constrained both by curricular changes, a lack of training and a lack of good resources that address the past in complex ways.  Essentially, the Holocaust is not integrated into the national narrative which is still primarily a war narrative and one of martyrdom of the Polish nation. Teachers are also not necessarily reading the scholarship developed and discussed by academics, and they are far from bringing a moral or ethical dimension into the work of teaching this history. In addition, there is an important generational distinction, Dr. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs believes, as young people are freer about facing the past, more open to it while their teachers remain fearful and conflicted.

Dr. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs pointed to some exceptional programs but also cautioned us about being overly optimistic. Teachers still need more courage, she said, to face Poland’s past, to speak about it and teach it effectively.

Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University and the Center for Holocaust Research Castle in Przegorzaly

 Submitted by Jan Darsa

 

Despite resembling an ancient royal residence, The Castle in Przegorzaly, a picturesque estate, actually only dates back to the late-1920s when local architect and conservator Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz built the building today known as the “Bastion” as his family residence. Seized by the Nazis at the start of the war, the estate was soon transformed into a grand residential castle for Otto Wachter, the Nazi Governor of the Krakow district. Today, the Castle houses Jagiellonian University’s Institute of European Studies and the Center for Holocaust Studies.

Musical Performance and Presentation

Performers and Presenters:

·        Janusz Makuch, Director and Founder of the Krakow Jewish Festival

·        Urszula Makosz, Professional Singer and Actress, performs traditional Yiddish music

·        Przemyslaw Piekarski, Senior Lecturer in Yiddish at the Jagiellonian University

_____________________________________________________________

Tonight we traveled to the beautiful Jagiellonian University for a dinner at the Center for Holocaust Research Castle. Although the castle resembles an ancient royal residence, it was actually built in the 1920's as a residence for a local architect and conservator. The castle was seized by the Nazis at the start of the war and transformed into a grand residential castle for Otto Wachter, the Nazi Governor of the Krakow district. Today the castle houses the University's Institute of European Studies and the Center for Holocaust Studies and is set atop a hill with a sweeping view of the valley and river below.

We had the opportunity to meet the Director of the Krakow Jewish Festival, which is a major event in Krakow Poland every year at the end of June in the old Jewish Quarter in Krakow called Kazimierz. This event, which is in it's 24th year, brings 15,000 people to Krakow to participate in a 10 day festival with over 300 different workshops, lectures, musical performances, seminars and guided tours. The festival was started in 1988 by 2 non-Jewish men who originally thought this would be a one-time festival lasting 3 days and bringing 100 people together. They wanted to bring back Jewish culture to Poland and celebrate the diversity of that culture with both traditional "Fiddler on the Roof" Klezmer music together with contemporary Jewish culture of all kinds. It has grown into an international event bringing Jews and non-Jews from Poland and around the world to Krakow each year.

We were treated to a taste of the festival with a wonderful musical performance with Urszula Makosz, a professional singer and actress, who performed songs in Yiddish (the language of the Jews of Eastern Europe before the war), Sephardic (the language of the Jews of Spain and the Balkan countries) and Hebrew. Urszula brought a spirit of the musical diversity of the Jews with her beautiful voice and provided an uplifting moment after some difficult days of delving into the painful history of the Holocaust. It was a great ending to a day of exploring the rich Jewish life of Krakow and Galicia's pre-war community and the of the disappearance of that community while also learning about a new and emerging small Jewish community that exits today in Krakow.

Jewish Life in Krakow: Present Day and into the Future

Submitted by Judi Bohn

Panel:
Justin Kadis, Director of External Relations , JCC Krakow
AnnA Gulinska, Director of Programming , JCC Krakow 

The presenters from the Jewish Community Center of Krakow , funded primarily throughout the American Joint distribution Committee, focus on building a Jewish future in Krakow. They provide an array of services based on individual needs of this unique community  .  In the 6 years since they were founded, their membership has increased  and they are now the central resource for anyone who discover they have Jewish roots. Many young people are experiencing an identity crisis . Since Poland has such a small Jewish community and the fear of of declaring yourself a Jew still exists , the need for a perceived neutral organization that has resources and knowledge to  offer them is critical. Several key  staff members are not Jewish. This helps people to feel  a sense of safety  in sharing their own identity .  

The JCC hopes to strengthen the Jewish identities of those people who have little knowledge of how to be live Jewishly.   They offer classes in traditional Jewish customs , provide Hebrew  and prayer classes,  and make referrals  to all aspects of Jewish life.

Considering what we know about the rise of antisemitism in Europe,as well as in other parts of Poland, the JCC  claims " It is good to be Jewish in Krakow." Indeed they are the home to the largest Jewish Music Festival in the world  and the Jewish district, neglected in the  1980's and 90's , has become a center for philosemitic tourism as well as a place for Jews to  feel a sense of nostalgia for what was lost.  There is nothing  the JCC can do about the number of Jews who were lost in the Holocaust , but they strongly believe there is something they can do to change the number of Jews lost to the Jewish world.

Jewish Poland, Real and Imagined: Memory, Memorialization and Facing History

Submitted by Dave Fulton

Professor Webber began his talk by relaying a story of how a group of Jews from the US came to Krakow and wanted to tour a synagogue (on Yom Kippur, no less) to take pictures, even though a service was taking place inside. These visitors were incredulous that there is a Jewish population living in Poland at all and this image of Poland had to be actively dislodged by the reality of people praying inside.  (They in fact did not enter to take pictures.)

The story was a useful backdrop for facing the complex history of Jews in Poland – a task that sits at the interface of what is real and what is imagined. 

Much of his talk was about how these same complexities play out at Auschwitz.  On one hand, it is a cemetery for over a million people who died.  Their ashes are literally on site.  In this regard, Webber feels that it ought to be a place where people are encouraged to grieve, and perhaps even leave flowers for those who died.  On the other hand, it is a museum with over 1.5 million visitors a year and almost a tourist site; a place where  visitors have come expect to take in a tidy story of the Holocaust.  He mentioned that the barbed wire has been replaced twice, because visitors even expect the barbed wire to match what they have in their minds. But Webber doesn’t think this is a place where people can take in the “totality” of what happened in the Holocaust.

He thinks there needs to be more clearly articulated educational aims for visiting this site – and that it ought to offer people the opportunity of a life-changing experience, instead of (more cynically) something that visitors check off their list.  To that end, he would like to see more emphasis on what happened to Jews before they even got to Auschwitz – the discrimination, the ghettoization, etc. 

 He commented that Auschwitz is a “fiendishly complicated place,” and is in many ways emblematic of the contradictions, paradoxes, and levels of incoherence we find when trying to make sense of the history of Jews in Poland.

Touring the Exhibition "Traces of Memory", on the Subject of the Jewish Heritage in Polish Galicia

Submitted by Dimitry Anselme

Reflecting on the Changing Nature of Karimierz through Personal Narrative

Submitted by

Walking Tour of Kazimierz, a Historical Jewish District of Krakow

Submitted by Lisa Lefstein-Berusch

Through our walking tour of Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter of Krakow,  our group again experienced the blend of past, present, and future that is Poland today.  (Please visit the blog's links to photographs of Kazimierz to see this area for yourself.)

Before WWII, more than 65,000 Jews lived in Krakow, most of them in this Jewish quarter.  While the quarter today boasts many Jewish establishments, only a few hundred or so Jews live in Krakow today.

Our tour began at the old synagogue, today a museum where one can learn about the Jewish religion and its history in Poland. 

Szeroka street, the focal point of Kazimierz, was once entirely Jewish.  Today there are a number of Jewish establishments:  a Jewish bookstore, a number of Jewish restaurants, and Hamsa, a restaurant whose sign reads "Hummus and Happiness."  

Small tourist buses advertise tours of "Old Town, Jewish Quarter, Ghetto, and Schindler's Factory."  

On this same street, we visited the Remuh Synagogue, named for Rabbi Moses Isserles.  It is under renovation, but is a functioning Orthodox synagogue.  Behind Remuh is the old Jewish cemetery of Cracow.  The headstones, arranged in neat rows, belie the fact that this cemetery was destroyed in the war.  The grave markers were replaced by non-Jewish Poles after WWII and no longer accurately indicate the bodies buried below.  A number of headstones were broken and together form a hauntingly beautiful wall at the edge of the cemetery. 

The beautiful and elegant progressive Temple synagogue, adjacent to the Krakow JCC, is used today for concerts and meetings.  This JCC was built a number of years ago and is working to deepen and enrich Jewish life in Krakow and Poland.  The building was bustling with life and vibrant posters advertised past and upcoming Purim and L'ag B'Omer celebrations. 

Whether the renovated historic landmarks and the newer cultural institutions indicate a revival of Jewish life in Krakow, or merely an opportunity to remember Kazimierz's past remains to be seen -- but the signs we saw indicated real potential for a Jewish future in Poland.