Due to technical difficulties, including some with PALS, I have been unable to email from Europe. I will now bring you up to date on our adventure abroad with several emails over the next couple of days.
May 21 – 24 – Poland
We left Berlin by train early on the morning of May 21. Most of the students had never ridden on a train before and they enjoyed this first time. They liked the dining car and especially enjoyed the food trolley that came down the aisle in each car. It was just like in the Harry Potter movies! When not eating or sleeping, we all enjoyed the countryside as viewed from the train. The rolling hills gave way to flat pastures as we neared Warsaw.
This was the first trip to Poland for everyone in the group. Warsaw was greatly destroyed at the end of WW II by order of the Nazis. Over 85% of the original city is gone. Today, it has been rebuilt into a major capital city. Even the old parts of town were rebuilt in the original style. Several of us purchased post cards which had the before and after scenes of parts of Warsaw. We began with a walking tour of the Old Town area where the ancient city walls have been re-created. Our tour director, Pavel Hruska, did a wonderful job of orienting us to each city and how to maneuver in that city when on our own. Pavel is a native of the Czech Republic and speaks 9 (yes, nine) languages. I might add that he was quite good at forcing our students to think. At times, he even made them a bit angry but he was always able to discuss the issues and by this time on the program, our students had come to understand what he was doing. As a teacher, Pavel was constantly using the Socratic method of questioning as a learning tool.
Our second day in Warsaw was dedicated to the Warsaw Ghetto and its uprising during WW II. Nothing of the Ghetto exists today although there are some markers around town indicating where a wall of the ghetto once stood. We began with a visit to the Jewish Institute where we viewed a film on the ghetto and uprising. After the video, we toured the institute which has artifacts and photos from the ghetto. There were also items from Jewish synagogues reminding us of our visit to Temple Beth-El in San Antonio before we left.
We then continued walking around Warsaw through what would have been the ghetto area. We all considered this sacred ground. Our guide Yolanda was passionate about sharing the information on Warsaw and the ghetto with us. We covered several of the monuments dedicated to the uprising and each one was unique in its form, artistic rendition and aspect of the history. It was a somber walk and discussion. Later, some of the group visited the uprising museum and Pawiak prison where the Gestapo would interrogate and torture anyone suspected of opposing the Nazis.
On May 23, we left by bus for Krakow. En route we watched the movie, The Pianist, which is the story of a Jew who was in the Warsaw Ghetto and survived. Again, our director, Pavel, was able to provide this movie as well as several others to enhance our trip. This was the day we had been both looking forward to and dreading. We went to the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkeneau. Our group entered Auschwitz with great apprehension and of course, foreboding. Although none of us had been here before, we had studied the activities and horror that had occurred at these places. Our guide was quite good at helping us through the camps as well as answering questions and providing insight. His knowledge and understanding were critical to our being able to visit these sites of genocide. As we walked through the barracks and saw the piles of shoes, hair, eyeglasses and clothing, we could identify with the human loss that occurred here. We even walked through a small gas chamber and crematorium. Most of the group were in tears and yet we continued. We had a choice to be there and learn; the victims who arrived here had no choice. For them, we continued on and tried to grasp the meaning of this sacred place.
We learned that we could purchase candles to leave at the memorials and several of us did so at the Birkeneau memorial. Birkeneau was the location of four massive gas chambers and crematoriums. Only parts of one remain; the Nazis destroyed the others as they were leaving so that evidence would not be available. The evidence is there, however and it has been maintained by the current governments as history. It is unpleasant history but it must not be forgotten. I doubt if anyone in our group will ever forget that experience. It was a somber group that boarded our bus to continue on to Krakow. I agree with our tour director Pavel who has only gone through once and does not plan to go through again. He takes groups there but waits for us at the bus. I (Karen) feel that if I should return with a group, I will do the same.
Krakow was a much needed source of hope and pleasantness. It was not destroyed in WW II and so we were able to enjoy its charm of a 1500 year old city. We began by visiting the Schindler factory that is being turned into a museum. It looks exactly as it does in the movie. Then we went to the Wawel castle and main cathedral which were lovely in architecture and design. We learned the legend of the Krakow dragon and enjoyed the re-enactment of the trumpet warning as the Huns approached. The trumpeter was shot with an arrow and the music always ends abruptly. The morning was spent walking around the Old Town with our guide and the afternoon was free time. It was a great place to relax, do some shopping and reflect on a culture that is so much older and different from ours.
Tomorrow, we leave for Prague.
The traveling faculty:
Karen, Theresa, Rob, Javier and Carole
Rosario Plascencia (L), Janet Rangel, and Gabriella Quintero Reynosa (R) at the PAC Graduation Ceremony.
