Saturday, August 10th: Today, the Holocaust became personal and was probably the most important day I have had since backpacking Europe as I visited the tows of Polaniec and Staszow, two towns about 80 miles northeast of Krakow. My grandfather was born in the town of Staszow and had family in Polaniec. Polaniec is also where my great grandmother is from and where my grandfather was nearly killed the Polish police near the end of the War after surviving 5 years in hiding.
I took the bus from Krakow to Polaniec and had no clue what to do when I first arrived. My hope was to find some sort of Jewish community center or town archives and find out where various family lived. I found neither but various people did go out of their way to help me, including driving me to the tourist information area in the center of town.
After about 2.5 hours in Polaniec, I took a 20 minute bus ride to Staszow to see where my grandfather was born and grew up before the Nazis invaded. His home was near the center of Staszow and was very easy to get to. When I saw it, I broke down as I pictured my grandfather growing up there as a child, with all of the innocence of a seven-year old, and how all of that was lost at such a young age. I just felt sick and saddened and I did try to go into his home, to no avail.
A few other more personal and relevant connections to the Holocaust. Yesterday, I visited the overgrown rubble of the former Plasow Concentration Camp, the one featured in Schindlers List. It is mainly just rubble, minus a few memorials and skeletons of buildings that still remain. Today, before leaving Krakow, I saw the residence of a woman who was saved by Schindler, Rena Finder who lives near Natick and who selflessly and beautifully speaks to my students about her experiences. It was a privilege to have seen where she grew up as well and really placed the emphasis on the individual victims and the individuality of the Holocaust more so than numbers.
Ultimately, today was one of those days that I will never forget. The building that has the number 3 on it is where my grandfather lived in Staszow and the building that has a number 10 on it is where Holocaust survivor Rena Finder lived in Krakow. I have also added pictures of Polaniec and of the remains of the Plaszow Concentration Camp.
Okay. I just arrived in Warsaw and am actually flying to Latvia from here tomorrow morning. I will add another post about Krakow tomorrow and how beautiful it is. That is a separate topic in and of itself!
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