Day 1: Warsaw

Day 1:  Warsaw

After a lengthy plane ride from LAX to Frankfurt and then on to Warsaw, we finally arrived at our hotel, where 6 had arrived a day earlier and 2 more arrived about an hour after us.  Finally all together, the trip we have all been thinking about for this entire year has finally commenced.  

We met our tour guide Waclaw (Vatzlav) ... (oy the Polish, Czech, Hungairan and German spellings are going to kill me!) who will be with us throughout our journey in Poland.

Although half of us were fighting to stay awake, we spent the afternoon touring the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto.  We started at the south end of the ghetto where we saw remnants of the wall, there we were met by a 90 year old Polish man who had been part of the Polish resistance during the war.

We then made our way to the north side of the ghetto to see the famous memorial to the Ghetto fighters which stands across from what will in a year or so be a beautiful and impressive new museum dedicated to the history of Jewish life in Poland.


We stood somberly atop Mila 18, the bunker that was the center of resistance.  It was difficult to imagine that 100 or so resistance fighters were entombed beneath our feet.

We then made our way to the Umshlagplatz ... the loading area where, every day 58 cattle cars would transport up to 7000 Jews to their death.  All told 300,000 Jews crossed that plaza on the way to their death.  We held our first of several memorial services, each of us picking a name from the many on the memorial wall,  as together we recited kaddish.

It is a strange thing, indeed, to be in this city, to be in this country and to know its history.  from the very beginning, almost 800 years ago, Jews were never welcome here ... why did they stay?  What benefit was to be gained?

And it was sad to hear our tour guide say that for most Poles there is no real interest in this history. According to him, this is 'our' history not 'theirs'.  How is that possible?  How can they not see what happened here as part of their history as well?

I guess that those are questions that remain to be answered.

For now, exhausted from a long flight, we will head off to a welcome dinner in Old Town Warsaw before heading off to bed and (hopefully) a good nights sleep.  Tomorrow promises to be a fascinating day as we make our way from Warsaw to Krakow ... and along the way, explore the birthplace of some of the most well known and prominent Chasidic movement.