Korniaktow/Budy Lancuckie - July 22, 2010

sign on deserted synagogue - Poland

letter written by my father to Julian Wojtyna

envelope posted on 8 July, 1979 from my father to J. Wojtyna

Maggie and Michael with J. Wojtyna family (Julian Wojtyna-3rd from right)
Korniaktow, Poland

barn where my father hid from Nazis - home of Mach Family

Maggie and Michael with Mach Family - Budy Lancuckie, Poland

Budy Lancuckie, Poland - village where my father was born

farmland near Korniaktow, Poland

Korniaktow, Poland - my father's childhood home

schoolhouse in Budy Lancuckie that my father attended

signs in km from Rzeszow traveling east

Our tour of Poland with the USHMM has ended. It was a life-altering experience to visit first-hand the areas where the horrors of the Holocaust took place. In addition, for me it was a personal experience. As a daughter of two Holocaust survivors, it was especially meaningful and at the same time eerie to step on land that had been the scene of so much tragedy and death.
With a tour guide/translator/driver, I set out to visit the small villages where my father was born and where he had spent his youth. It took several hours by car, driving through Rzeszow, to begin to see the farmland and scattered homes along a two-lane road. Passing signs with familiar sounding names (my father had spoken to me of working and living in different towns in Poland), I knew that I was getting close to my destination. After seeing the signs indicating that we had entered "Budy Lancuckie", I began to feel my father's presence. My guide/driver pointed out an old, deserted two story building that he knew had been a schoolhouse in years gone by. Maybe my father had been a student in this building. The sun was shining brightly as we entered the town of Korniaktow. This was the village where my father spent his youth. He often told stories of how he helped his mother in the garden and how he often went into the big city with his father to barter grains and farm animals for other goods.
After asking local villagers about two families that I knew had been neighbors of my father, they directed us to their homes. You can imagine the amazement of both families as they opened their doors to the daughter of someone who had once lived close by. The guide was able to translate Polish-English and it was quite miraculous to be able to stand in the homes of families knowing that my father had stood there some sixty years before.
The first home that we visited was that of the Mach family. The elder Tadeusz Mach was no longer alive, but his daughter and grandchildren greeted us. They showed us the barn where the elder Mr. Mach hid my father during the years of the Holocaust. I could barely hold back my tears.
The second home that we went to was that of the Wojtyna family. Miraculously, the elder gentleman, Julian Wojtyna, was still alive at 96 years old! His Polish commentary which I have recorded and plan to send to Yad Vashem, was his recounting of the days during WWII when he aided my father and other Jews who were trying to escape from the Nazis. His family made us feel extremely welcome. To my amazement, Mr. Wojtyna's daughter went to the kitchen drawer and opened it to reveal that she had saved letters from my father after the war. For some reason, she felt the need to hold on to them and save them. I held back my tears as I recognized my father's handwriting. This was truly a dream come true for me -- to be able to stand in the home of a Christian family who had the courage and humanity to save my father from his death.
I am deeply indebted to both of these families and will remember them in my heart forever.

Treblinka - July 20, 2010

Treblinka memorial with Star of David

Memorial candle at Treblinka

replica of train tracks - Trebinkla

memorial at Treblinka

vast woods - Treblinka

It was a warm and sunny day when I arrived at Treblinka. It was both a forced labor camp as well as an extermination camp. In reality, it was a factory of death, more than anything else. It is estimated that over 99% of arrivals at the camp were sent to the gas chambers immediately. Treblinka was located about 62 miles northeast of Warsaw. The camp received its first shipment of victims, 6,500 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto on July 22, 1942. The gas chambers became operational the following day. Shipments continued on a daily basis thereafter, usually between 4,000 and 7,000 victims per day. The killing center had no other function, unlike concentration camps, in which prisoners were used as forced labor for the German war effort. In order to prevent incoming victims from realizing their fate, the camp was disguised as a railway station, complete with train schedules posters of destinations, and what appeared to be a working clock (in reality, a prisoner would move the hands to the approximate time before each convoy arrived.
All that remains of the horrors of Treblinka are a symbolic set of tracks along with a huge memorial consisting of rock formations as far as the eye can see. On the day that I visited, the largest rock formation had a small Star of David laying at its base. Numerous memorial candles with melted wax had been placed at different locations where visitors had been. The vastness of the area and its quiet greenery felt eerily calm. Simply walking through this place of horror brought images of unimaginable crimes of humanity.

Lodz - July 18, 2010

Lodz Ghetto Memorial

Lodz Ghetto Memorial

List of Names on Transport out of Lodz Ghetto

Train Cattle Car out of Lodz Ghetto

Radegast Station for transport out of Lodz Ghetto

Old synagogue - Lodz, Poland

Arthur Rubenstein sculpture on Ul. Piotrkowska

main street in Lodz - ul. Piotrkowska

fresh vegetables in market - Lodz, Poland

my favorite Greek yogurt @ market in Lodz, Poland

We took a side trip to Lodz, Poland, a city which is well off the usual tourist trail. It is home to Poland's biggest film studios and one of Europe's most famous film schools. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Lodz grew to become Poland's second largest city.
During the Nazi invasion of Poland, Germany captured Lodz on September 8, 1939 and annexed it to the Reich in November, 1939. The city received the new name of Litzmannstadt after the Germany general Karl Litzmann, who captured the city during World War I. The Nazis planned to evacuate the whole community of Jews from the city of Lodz, however, as it was impossible to do it immediately, they established a closed ghetto on December 10, 1939. The northern part of the city including streets of the Old City and the Baluty District, was chosen as a location of the ghetto. Because the Jewish community was so large, it took the Nazis eight months to lock the Lodz Jews in the small area of the Lodz Ghetto. In April, it was surrounded by wire and wooden fences. Over the years, Jews from other parts of Europe and Romans were deported to the Lodz Ghetto.
The Radegast Station, or the loading platform, is one of the most important historical sites connected to the Lodz ghetto. From this place, tens of thousands of people were herded off to the death camp at Chelmno and then to Auschwitz. The original wooden building along with its loading platform still stands today. The railway station was built in 1937. The Radogoszcz (Radegast) Station was the so-called Umschlagplatz of Lodz, the site where people were assembled just prior to being shipped out, in most cases, to die. For years, the building lay in ruin. In 2002, a Jewish heritage organization proposed that a museum of the ghetto be created in the Station building. It is one of the major historical sites that tell the tragic story of the Lodz ghetto.
Unlike Warsaw, the city of Lodz escaped major destruction during WWII. Ul. Piotrkowska is Lodz's 3.6 km long north =south backbone. Most of the city's tourist sights, hotels and restaurants are located on this cobblestone street. There is a branch of the Muzeum Sztuki, one of Poland's best museums of modern art in Poland, located in the area of Lodz largest mall "Manufaktura". Many upscale shops and restaurants are located in the area of the Manufaktura, including an outdoor "sand" beach area. The largest 19th Century textile factory complex which was built by Izrael Poznanski is an example of a modern business which operates in restored 19th century buildings. Our hotel, Andels Hotel, is an example of a contemporary interior located in such a restored building. We purchased items in the local grocery store and enjoyed a picnic lunch watching sand volleyball players. Who could have imagined the horror that had taken place in Lodz just seventy years ago?

Oswiecim - Auschwitz-Bierkenau - July 16, 2010

Memorial to Victims of Auschwitz

Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Makes You Free
sign at entrance to Auschwitz

Candle Memorial to Victims

Interior of Barracks

Ribbon with Israeli flag color
placed on train tracks at Auschwitz

Chilling view of tracks leading to Auschwitz

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the killing center where the largest numbers of European Jews were killed during the Holocaust. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale. Some estimates run as high as three million people kiled through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning. 9 out of 10 were Jews. In addition, gypsies, Soviet POW's, and prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers. The largest single mass deportation during the Holocaust occurred between May 14 and July 8, 1944 where 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 148 trains.
The facility was established by order of Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. Private diaries of Goebbels and Himmler reveal that Adolf Hitler personally ordered the mass extermination of the Jews.children were often killed upon arrival. Children born in the camp were generally killed on the spot.
So called camp doctors, especially the notorious Josef Mengele, would torture and inflict incredible suffering on inmates.
The horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau have been recounted widely. Books, manuscripts, films etc. have established the extraordinary evil committed by human beings.
Our trip to Auschwitz was emotionally difficult and trying. Every step that I took, every tree that I saw, every blade of grass could not remove the images of death and horror that Auschwitz conveyed. Throngs of people were witnessing Auschwitz the same day that our group was there. Schoolchildren, the frail and elderly, people of all nationalities and races were here to witness the gravesite and memorial to the millions killed.
So much has been written about Auschwitz. There is no need to write more. The memories that I have of being in this place will be with me forever.

Krakow Old Town - July 15, 2010

Painted Door Entrance to Shop - Old Town, Krakow

Planty Park - Krakow, Poland

Cafe located in stone building - Old Town Krakow

Pastries on display in cafe - Old Town, Krakow

Scene - Old Town, Krakow

Archway of stone in building - Old Town, Krakow

Google Office sign - Old Town, Krakow

Krakow's historic center, which includes the Old Town, Kazimierz and the Wawel Castle, was included as the first of its kind on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1978. The Old Town (Stare Miasto in Polish) is the most prominent example of an old town in the country. The architectural design has survived all wars of the past and has retained its original form coming from the medieval times. The Old Town is home to about 6,000 historic sites and more than two million works art. Every hour, trumpeters from the church steeple ring the bells in the middle of the Town Square. Housed in old buildings made of stone are modern, contemporary shops including an amazing deli (Delikatesy 13) which proudly displays its fresh fruit and veggies and delicious pastries. Walking through the winding streets of the Old Town I spotted a Google sign. Sure enough, Google has an office in Krakow!!
On my way back to the hotel after a pleasant afternoon, I strolled through the beautiful Planty Park which was established in the 1800's in place of the old city walls, forming a green belt around the Old Town. Skies were blue and temperatures were warm.....the seeming calm and beauty that I was experiencing would be changing drastically as I anticipated our trip tomorrow to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Krakow - July 15, 2010

Krakow, seat of the famous Jagiellonian University founded in 1364, was the capital of the Polish kingdom from 1038 until 1596. Jews are known to have been residents of the city since 1176. In 1935, Krakow had a population of 245,000, including more than 68,000 Jews. German troops captured Krakow on September 6, 1939, less than a week after Nazi Germany invaded poland. After carrying out a military maneuver that spared Krakow significant destruction, Soviet troops liberated the city on January 19, 1945.
The Germans deported two thirds of Krakow's Jews (more than 40,000) between Oct. 1940 and March 1941. The remaining Jews were forced to live in the Krakow ghetto. By October 1941, nearly 25,000 Jews lived in the ghetto.
In two deportations, in June and Oct. 1942, the Germans sent almost half of the ghetto population, 12,000 Jews, to the Belzec killing center. In March 1943, the ghetto was liquidated: approximately 6,000 Jews were sent to the forced labor camp in Plaszow, and the remainder were either killed in the ghetto or deported to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Less than 700 Jews remained at Plaszow when the Soviets liberated the camp in January 1945. Perhaps 6,000 Krakow Jews (10%) survived the war.

Krakow - July 15, 2010

Torah Ark - Remuh Synagogue, Krakow

Kazimierz

Gates to entrance to Remuh Synagogue, Krakow

Interior of Tempel Synagogue - Krakow

Synagogue Doors - Krakow

Jews Forbidden - photo of sign in Krakow History Museum

Nazi insignia tiled floor - Krakow History Museum

Our day in Krakow begins with a trip to the Krakow History Museum. The museum is housed in what used to be the administrative building of what used to be the Oskar Schindler Factory. The museum shows the history of the factory in a broad historical context and provides visitors the opportunity to learn more about the history of Krakow under German occupation. After a brief lunch at Szara's, we began our walking tour of Kasimierz. It is best known for being home to a Jewish community from the 14th century until WWII. The town was founded in 1335 by King Kasimierz where it once thrived as a community of tolerance between Christians and Jews. Through the years, Kazimierz became a town with walls separating the two religions and in 1791, it lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Krakow. The death knell of Jewish Krakow was sounded in 1939 when the Germans invaded and occupied Poland. After the war, Kazimierz was mostly deserted by its pre-war Jewish population and became a poor and dangerous neighborhood. Many old buildings were not repaired after the war devastation. Since 1988, a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival has drawn Krakovians back to Kazimierz and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland's historic Jewish community. A Jewish youth group now meets weekly in Kazimierz and the Remuh Synagogue actively services a small congregation of mostly elderly Jews.
Our next stop was the Galicia Jewish Museum which commemorates victims of the Holocaust and celebrates the Jewish culture of Galicia. It hopes to educate Poles and Jews about their own histories. It is home to the internationally acclaimed permanent photographic exhibition, Traces of Memory.