Images to Ponder: Day Two

RESISTANCE in times of despair 


Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This statue was unveiled in 1948, just three years after the war ended.  The city was all rubble at the time, nothing but slabs of fallen buildings.  The survivors needed to commemorate their past lives and the people they love.  Jewish belief is that as long as you are remembered, part of you still lives.

A few thoughts to consider:  Have you heard of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?  
When you think of an uprising, what age and gender fighters do you think of?
The resistance was both male and female, and kids were very much involved.
This was a last-ditch attempt at survival.  
It took the Nazis by surprise and lasted longer than planned.
Above all: it got the attention of the world.




The other side of the memorial-- with the new Museum in the back

This is the back of the sculpture above.  
How does it show a different story of the Holocaust?
Note the lack of shoes.
Note the eyes and hands in such different positions.


Jan Karski

A hero of the resistance, but he felt like a failure because of all the lives that were lost anyway.

The earlier memorial tablet, still there.  1946

 I included a photo of the men at the ceremony commemorating this tablet.
Notice the rubble in the background.


A REMINDER OF THE LIFE FROM BEFORE

My favorite corner of the museum: a celebration of Yiddish!

Yiddish has so many beautiful stories.  
I L Peretz, Sholem Asch, Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer are four great authors.
You might want to look for some of their short stories!

A better photo of the inside of the re-created Warsaw Synagogue

I keep thinking about this. 
It is so different from MY Jewish experience, but it makes me think of carousels!


Emmanuel Ringelblum


 Readers of this blog know already how much I admire recorders of history.
I spent Thanksgiving researching this man and his efforts to preserve life stories.
The museum had a whole area devote to his archives.


Recreation of the rubble

Modern museums seem to be less artifact driven and more image/media driven.
I would have liked to have seen more artifacts, but many just don't exist.
However, they used the technology really powerfully.  
See the rubble?  Now, underneath, look...

The testimonies, the Oyneg Shabbes archives, were found under the rubble.

One of the three big collections STILL has not been found. 
I wonder if it ever will be unearthed.


AFTER the war

This wall, basically a work of art, was powerful to me.

So, what do you do after your whole world has been displaced?
I can't even imagine.
It took years for many survivors to be able to tell their stories.

A REMINDER


This is the path the Nazis took when entering the ghetto to deport Jews.
You can see Jan Karski's statue on the left and on the very right is the beginning of the 1946 monument.

This is the Umschlagplatz, the station from which Jews were deported.
6000 Jews a day.  7 days a week. Taken to Treblinka.  1942.

CEMETERIES

I appreciate the quiet bit of forever in a cemetery.
I know that generations back, cemeteries were important in my grandfather's family.
For me, there has never been a personal link with a cemetery, though...
Today was different.
All the Yiddish.  All the Hebrew.
And in the back (not photographed), just mounds....








This one is the most powerful to me...the wall of Holocaust stones, with the old cemetery behind it.

And NOW for something COMPLETELY Different...
My "Alice in Wonderland Moment".

Bus drivers are mandated breaks so we needed to stop for 45 minutes after 2 hours driving.
We were told that we'd have a pit stop at a McDonalds.
Not exactly.  We ended up here, at this traditional hotel-gone-Disney....
Just a little levity in photography for you all!







Some of my new friends!
Daniella (from Prague), Laura (from the US) and Johanna (from Finland)

What do you think of THIS sign?


Signing off for tonight... from Krakow!
We arrived late.  I have more stories about today, but they will have to wait!

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