Back Part 2

After parting from Belzec, we journeyed into a place for which I will probably remember a long time from now: Krosno. We met students from a university here and were able to form many friendships which transcended nationalities. Most of the time, my friends from my college and Texas A&M were busy forming new friendships and trying to find places to stay. However, fate seemed to grip me like a glove. I met two maggies, a Monika, and a Molly (I believe that was her name). Not only this, but I was able to later meet Peter and a guy who gave me a hard time that starts with a B, but I can’t think of it for the life of me. They all were wonderful people that seemed to be as excited to see us as we were excited to see them eventhough we were too shy to show it at first. Most of my time was spent with Monica.

Monika was a girl who shared in very similar interests as me: Lost, Soccer (Football, whatever you want to call it), Prison Break, and good conversation. She even discussed politics, which to my understanding, everyone hates here in Poland. However, maybe people say something similar to this in America, I’m just too ignorant being a political science major to notice. I think I’m probably correct in that assumption. However, whatever the case, she indulged me in everything anyone could ever want to know or care about. We had so much in common, I had completely forgotten to even talk to anyone else. She offered to put me up for the night in her families house for a place to stay, and I naturally accepted. It was much better than the market square! However, taking a shower in the fountain could have been fun…

Monika, who may be reading this as we speak, made my night probably one of the best I will ever have. Not only was she a great host, but she was a great friend and person to know in all sense of the word. We both enjoyed each other’s company, and wish we could have spent more time together than just one night eating, clubbing, and talking. She danced with me a ton on the dance floor, talked with me, and always wanted to make sure I was okay with everything. For that, I can’t thank her enough. After miscellaneous hand stands and my weird soccer dancing (which she still makes fun of me for), we journeyed back to her home. It was amazing house that I really can’t describe for lack of exterior design terms. Forgetting to take a picture, I will allow my mind to save the image for me.

She was, however, able to tell me about her. More specifically, about how she had gotten into a car accident on the way back to her home, as me and my friend Katie both were uncertain at that point of her driving confidence. Obviously, she wasn’t a bad driver, having driven with her for awhile. Sometimes accidents just do happen, and well, I give her crap for it nonetheless. =) She quickly caught on to my sarcasm, and knew there were some things I wouldn’t let her live down. She only later would dish this back to me, and they often were quite deserving remarks sometimes. All was in good nature, however.

We ended up staying up late that night discussing issues like Visas and work permits for the USA and how she wants a working permit for the country. She had previously been in Des Moines and the Chicago area (a town with polish heritage) before . So, she is really trying hard to get back to the states to be able to work there and not as a person without a working permit. That would negate all purpose of the trip, and I totally understood her point of view on the issue. She told me how hard her exams coming up were and I can’t even fathom how hard it would have been for me to take those. They are so comprehensive, they make my finals look like a walk in the park. This is due to their college being free, so they are held to extraordinarily high standards. As it approached 4 o’clock and there was obvious signs we were tired, she told us to go to bed.

I awoke in the morning to a very similar breakfast to that of the cafetria’s at Krakow. It was almost astonishing how close it was. However, she begged me to eat more and I couldn’t refuse. Her mother didn’t speak any english, but I hope she does know how much it meant to most of us to be able to stay there with them. We did say thank you in Polish, which I cannot spell out literally due to the phonetics I can’t seem to grasp. As we approached our meet up location, we met up with UNI students and waited for people who were late. When they arrived, I was able to stay with Monika and travel to the castle. The castle which we visited wasn’t far from her house, and she was going to show the bus driver where it was located. Actually, she tried to show me on the way, but trees got the best of us.

After going through a long tour of the castle, I had to part with Monika. Something I wish I would have had more preparation to do because I parted badly due to the A&M professor ordering me to sit down in the bus. This gave me no chance to say good bye with a hug nor warm smile. Nonetheless I waved, and wrote her kind notes the night before, so she could read it today. The notes which only she will know all the material to. As irony has it, she will be in Krakow, but I will miss her when I leave for Praugue. She’s going to the consulate to work on her Visa for the U.S. and other stuff. I already miss her, and hope that somehow, through this last 3 weeks we can somehow meet up again.

Night my friends. Miss all of you in the states, as well as the ones I met last night in Krosno.

From left to right: Me, Monika, and Katie

Back Part 1

I’m finally back in my second home. Krakow, Poland. It was an amazing week, I really couldn’t even explain it all to you in any other words than amazing. It’s hard to fathom going to concentration camps, but having an awesome time in the mean time, but it was true.

As we began our journey, we left a little late, it was my fault. I thought I was ready, but ended up delaying the leaving by a few minutes. It really upsets our teachers and I try not to do it, unfortunately, it happened. Everyone was waiting for me, and it was extremely embarrassing. However, that wasn’t the main disappointment of the trip. We ended up visiting a castle on the way to Lublin, and we were going to visit a Jewish synagogue. However, in the last couple days, the synagogue changed ownership so it wasn’t available to the public. An unforeseen consequence no one was prepared for. However, we moved on touring the castle with our guide “Kasha.” I apologize to her, even if she can’t read this, I might be mispelling her name. She was interesting lady with many quirky qualities that made her a down to earth fun-loving person to talk to. After we finished touring the castle, we hopped back onto our bus and headed towards our final destination of Lublin. Along, the way we visited another synagogue though in Zamosc.

Zamosc was a city that contained 12,500 Jews at the start of World War II. This accounted for almost 45% of the total population. They controlled 80% of the local trade. They were concentrated mainly in the Old or New town districts. Once the war was declared on Poland and Germany and the USSR invaded, it took only 2 weeks for them to capture this city. First it was occupied by the Germans, but later it was then occupied by Soviets. They, later, left the city and 5,000 jews would leave with them. Later on in May, 1941, Jews were forced from the Old Town and into the New Town. Jews were told to relocate when there was 10,000 currently in it.  The New Town synagogue became the center for the Jewish Council.  This town, later became a transportation spot for Jews to places like Belzec. Later, this would become a place for other Jews to be transported to places like Sobibor and Majdanek in May and in August 1942. This town was a site of an entire way of life being whiped out from the map. It whiped away the Jewish culture due to the Holocaust from the Nazis.

Lublin had an amazing motel we stayed in. We were able to easily access a gas station close by or walk to the market square. However, the natives were a little bit more hostile, atleast the kids were. Chris, Bree, Megan, Jenn, and I were walking around trying to find a place to eat when kids yelled at us to stay away from their car. They then proceeded to curse at us every curse they knew. It was obvious they were Polish and just trying to look tough as a teenager, however it was a problem hard to ignore. I only later learned this hostility was directed at Britain travelers who had exploited the Polish law enforcement system. Unfortunately, we were guilty by association of either t-shirts with english or our spoken language. I’m not sure how they couldn’t differentiate our language dialects. Who knows. Anywho, we were able to escape into a nearby restaurant and enjoy a few brews and forget about what we had saw. However, upon returning, a brick next to a shattered hatchback car window only reminded us of the hostility. The night ended after we toured the city and we woke up the next morning.

This day was devoted toward seeing the Majdanek concentration camp. This camp was a forced labor camp which many of the Jews constructed roads to other parts of the camp. Like other memorial sites, there was the mention of: hair shaving, gold teeth pulling, and body dissection in order to exploit the opressed for all they were worth. In this site, we saw the ovens that were used to cremate the bodies. I believe only 200 could be burned a day, and so with 78,000 people were murdered in the camp, 59,000 of them Jews. It would be going constantly. During this time, the city could smell ashes brush into their city and they knew what was happening. Due to the times though, they ignored it by using anti-semitism as a reason for dehumanization and exploitation. This town was completely devastated by the holocaust.

Moving on, I did not attend a tour which extended from the concentration camp to examine the city of Lublin. Since, I was experiencing a major headache. I decided to sit this one out. This constituted most of the day, and we would wake tomorrow to leave for Belzec.

Belzec was purely a death center. It promoted the mass murders of anywhere from 500-600 million jews. They would simply take jews off of cattle cars and murder them in cold blood into ditches. These ditches would try to be hidden later by covering it with farm land and burning down all the instruments of distruction of this death center. The site encapsulated the grave nature of genocide with its eerie, dead silent scenary. As if, this place had been immortalized within the ground. The letters of the signs bleed red rust only reinforced what was a grim scene.