Day 1

We saw so many amazing sites today, I’m not even sure what I should talk about.  I think what is most amazing is the fact that the Polish built again on top of where the Warsaw Ghetto once stood.  It says a lot about their resilience, and, to put it lightly, is akin to telling the Germans where they could stick it.  That, and they built a lot of the buildings to look like what was there before, again, as if to say “you can knock us down, but we will rise again.”

Several statues stuck out in my mind, I loved both of the monuments dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising.  The men climbing over the broken down wall and charging, and the other statue featuring the insurgents climbing down into the sewers to get away from the Gestapo.  I also really liked the three women holding up the Supreme Court, and the priest getting annoyed because the statues featured the natural curves of a woman’s body.  I liked seeing all the statues of Josef Pilsudksi too, I recognized him due to his mustache even before our guide pointed him out to us.  I am very curious about the brothers Stanislaw and Janusz and their deaths.  While early twenties is a very young age to die, as I understand it, not many people lived very long lives in the sixteenth century.

What I loved most in our morning tour was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Respect to the military is always something I have taken very seriously, having served and been a part of the military all my life.  To know that Poland has one very similar to our own, and that two men will guard the tomb 24-7 means a lot to me.

The Polish Museum History of Polish Jews was a bit of a roller coaster of emotions for me.  To see the amount of care and dedication to it once again said a lot about the Jewish pride and resiliance.  The wooden painted synagogue was impressive, and so very close to the actual size of the original structure at 80%.  I wonder if President Duda is aware of some of the text there.  At least two that I noticed say “some Poles denounced the Jews to the Germans or murdered them themselves” or, regarding the Jedwabne progrom, the Poles “humiliated Jews, beat them, and finally burned them alive in the barn.”  I find it a bit disheartening to know that people cannot publicly denounce the Poles for their actions or lack thereof in World War II.  While I obviously cannot speak for everyone, I think most Poles were more concerned with the safety of their own families, and some attacked their Jewish neighbors in front of the Gestapo out of fear for punishment geared toward them.  For those reasons, I can hardly fault the Polish for what happened then.

As a lover of history, I like knowing that a Jewish synagogue managed to survive.  While it is a bit insulting to imagine the Germans using it for their horses, it was for that very reason that the building still stands and the Jewish were able to reclaim it as their rightful property and house of worship.

The Jewish Cemetary was not at all what I was expecting.  Most cemeteries I see back home have the headstone that aligns with the ground, and all of the Jewish headstones were elaborate and held a lot of meaning, like the broken trees.  What I loved most there was the monument to the children who participated in the Uprising, and the amount of respect that was given.