Sunday, July 7, 2024 - Warsaw Jewish history

 Pioter brought us by bus to the Jewish history museum by way of the several stops in the Warsaw ghetto with Kasha, our guide. With a map and photos we walked through the large and small sections of the ghetto. At one time Hitler ordered nearly 500,000 persons to move there, and the non-Jewish residents of the soon to be ghetto moved into the vacated dwellings. They were not allowed out and only 300 calories a day. It's one thing to read and watch documentaries about the Jewish citizens of Warsaw on the 1930s and 40s and another thing to walk the area where they were imprisoned  - much like walking around Manzanar to get a sense of what life here was like to live there.

  We then visited the Museum which focuses on one thousand years of Polish Jewish history. Kasha guided us through interactive presentations telling the story of being welcomed by local leaders to being slaughtered in my generation. I feel uncomfortable knowing these horrendous acts occurred during my lifetime. An interesting note is that Poland welcomed and placed in homes, no refugee camps over two million Ukranians. We The Roman Catholic churches sent housing requests to their members. Would we respond similarly to our neighbors to the south?

  The bus returned us to the hotel, and three of us returned to the restaurant where we ate our first dinner. I had borscht, and we talked with two others from our group at length so that there was little time to visit the national art museum. We then walked to a second hand store and found it closed. Ah yes, this is Sunday.

  We returned to the B&B and sat in the patio and talked with a couple like others fom our tour. Chris, my roommate,  returned with a story of visit to the home of the zookeeper who hid 300 Jews and helped them escape throughout the Nazi occupation

  Supper began with procheco and Q&A with the owner/manager of this B&B. This place is unique, and Jarek is humble, very matter-of-fact,  abd down to earth. He calls this place his hobby after purchasing it is extremely run down condition 25 years ago. Our supper here was over the top, and we celebrated the cooks and servers by learning a bit about each as they were introduced to us. The Ukranian meal was memorable.  Then two young adult Ukranian musicians came and played wonderful music on accordion and Bandera, a harp-like instrument held on the lap. They are studying at the conservatory here and they have been here three months.

  Conversations,  photos, and hugs completed our day. I will, probably need to pinch myself to realize that there are so many special memories from just one day

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