Jan Karski- NYC

Jan Karski is an inspirational man and tried to make a difference during WWII.  (To read more about him check this out.)

While in Kielce, Poland we saw a statue of Jan Karski. 

After leaving Poland I knew there were 3 others of this same statue.  One in Jerusalem, 1 in NYC and 1 in Washigton D.C.  When in D.C. over the summer we forgot to go find the statue.  But I remembered when I went to NYC last weekend!  The statue was outside the Polish Consulate...

We saw lots of other things in NYC, like the 9/11 Memorial.  My parents had already been to the Memorial in September and listening to my mom describe her experience it reminded me of the things I thought and felt while at Auschwitz.  Being there was different though... even thought I'll never forget 9/11 and watching the Twin Towers fall, it just didn't have the same impact for me.

An of course I went to the top of the Empire State building!  (By myself, too, everyone else was chicken and said it would be too cold!)



United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

About a month ago we decided to fly down to Washington D.C. for a long weekend to go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  I've been to this museum on 2 previous occasions but was anxious to go back after going to Poland and going to Auschwitz.

We had tickets to enter the man exhibit at 11:30 on Saturday morning.  We arrived at the museum when it opened at 10:00 and spent the first part of the morning at a very interesting exhibit on Nazi Propaganda.  The dictionary defines propaganda as:

information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

It was a large exhibit about how the Nazi's used propaganda to get the people of Germany and the countries they conquered to believe what they wanted: that Jews were bad. I enjoyed walking through the exhibit and looking at the artifacts.

 

We had a few minutes before we could go into the main exhibit so we waited in the entry hall:

 

At about 11:15 we headed up the large, main elevator to go to the main exhibit.  The main exhibit is 3 floors in total and took us about 3 hours to get through.  Everyone going up the main exhibit takes a passport type card with the story of a real person inside.  Some are very sad because the person doesn't survive the Holocaust.  But there are some people who survive.

The exhibit was very educational and very informative.  Many of the artifacts, the items on display, came from the museum at Auschwitz.  There was a replica of the ghetto wall I saw in Warsaw.  Not that things didn't have meaning the first 2 times I cam to the museum, everything just seemed to have MORE meaning having actually been there.  The museum at Auschwitz in Poland has very large collections of various items collected from the prisoner's.  The museum in DC had them as well... but instead of a large room filled with pots and pans there were 5 or 6 water bottles.  I did have to keep reminding myself that NOTHING could every compare to actually going there.

I believe the museum does an excellent job at educating.  It presents the facts and the evidence in a way that keeps you engrossed and moving from one room to the next.  It's very informative and educational.

At the very end of the exhibit is a prayer hall.  Here you can have some quiet time and light a candle.  I lit a candle for Auschwitz-Birkenau and Terezin, the 2 camps I have been to.  Jenn lit a candle for a camp called Ponary, which is the camp her grandmother was at.  I found it difficult to hold back the tears here...

 

After leaving the main exhibit we went into the book store.  There are so many books out there and I've read many... but I could have bought the whole store!!  One book we did buy was called "Once the Acadia's bloomed" by Fred Spiegel.  Mr. Spiegel was actually at the museum that weekend and we were able to talk with him and he signed our books.  I've since read the book and it was an excellent book.  I wish I had read it before I met him!!

 

I think my favorite part about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the fact that it wants to educate people and get them to think.  This is what it says on the outside of the building;

 

I think about what I saw and learned in Poland every day.  In October, along with about 10 other people from my Poland group, we will be presenting at the New England Historical Associations fall conference with a Poster Session. How can we go there, see what we did, learn what we did, experience what we did, and not share that with others?  That's what we hope to do in October.

So that's when my next post will be... at the end of October!

More to come...

Stay tuned because next weekend I'll be flying to Washington D.C. for the weekend to go to the Holocaust Museum with 2 of the people I went to Poland!! 

In the meantime... I'm in St. John!!  Here are a few of my favorite snorkeling pictures!! :-)

Here is the 4th sea turtle that we found.  They have to be my favorite, I could watch them for hours!

Lobster!  This was the 2nd one I found.

 This purple stuff is fish eggs.  The dad has to protect it... from the mom!  The female fish likes to EAT her eggs!  Can you  believe it?!

This fish is called a peacock flounder.  Right now he's swimming to get away from me.  Usually they lie flat on the sandy bottome and you can't see them at all.  I seem to be able to pick them out everywhere now that I know what they are.  I see them all the time!

A school of Blue Tang...

Another turtle!

This is a spotted ray.  Click on the image to see it larger and to see the spots.  It was HUGE and very beautiful.  It swam by me quickly but I snapped this picture!

This little guy is holding on to a piece of coral. Eventually... he'll kill the piece of coral :-(

Yesterday my dad and I hiked out to Rams Head.  It's the eastern most point of the island.  We even had to cross a fault line where a section is seperating from the island!  This is a shot of the south shore of St. John.  It's heavenly!

Don't forget to check back the first week of August!  I'll post from my D.C. adventure!

Beginning to Understand...

Here are some of the pictures that I took at the events I went to during Holocaust Remembrance week...

Days of Remembrance

Today is May 1st and it is the start of  Days of Remembrance of the Holocaust.  It officially goes from May 1st to May 8th.  This years theme at the Museum in D.C. is Justice and Accountability in the Face of Genocide: What Have We Learned?

Here is a link if you'd like to know more: Click Here

This week I'll be attending a few things.  Monday night I'll be going to Peabody High School to attend YOM HASHOAH, an Interfaith Commemoration of the Holocaust.  My professor that I went to Poland with has told us about this many time and I'm really looking forward to going.  If you'd like to know more click here.

Then, on Thursday I'll be going to Marblehead to hear a Dutch woman speak about her experiences hiding their Jewish nanny during the war.  It's called War Through a Child's Eye.  If you'd like to know more about that, click here.

It will be a busy week but I feel like I have to go in order to start to better process and understand what I saw and learned in Poland.

Ask me about it this week!

Long journey home!

I'm home!  I could have stayed another week, though!

We were able to sleep a little later yesterday because we didn't have to leave the hotel until 10:00 yesterday morning.  Some of us met for one last breakfast at the hotel.  A breakfast buffet was provided every day at the hotel.  It was interesting... Polish people like to eat a lot of meats and cheeses at breakfast time!  (I stuck with bread and nutella with scrambled eggs many days!)

Some of us were ready to go early so we took one last walk over to the main square.  We hadn't yet been here early in the morning so there were many people out and about getting ready for the day.  To get to the main square fromour hotel, first we have to cross the park space.  The park surrounds the entire downtown area, and it's the space where the walls used to stand a loooong time ago to protect the city.

We even saw some small Polish School children!  They were SO adorable!

We were only able to stay about 15 minutes before we had to get back to the hotel to grabour things and get on the bus.  Here is Jenn, Amy and I on the bus about to leave our hotel in Krakow.

And then finally, we all boarded the plane in Krakow and were on our way to Munich, Germany for a quick layover.  Jenn and I got to sit next to each other on this flight.  But on the 2nd flight all 21 of us were spread out over the plane.  Here are some of the people I traveled with this week:

The plane from Munich to Boston was very cool.  The bathrooms were located down stairs and there were about 6 or 8 of them!!  I took about a 2 hour nap on the plane and then spent a long time working on my portfolio.  I got about 16 pages done!  I was very happy with what I accomplished!  I spent the last hour before landing listening to my book on tape.  I didn't have any time at all, really, to read or listen to my audio book.  I didn't even touch the book I brought!  But I figured that's ok.  The reason I didn't have any time at all is because I was out experiencing all that Poland had to offer.

Our plane landed in Boston just before 6:30.  Customs and passport control was easy.  My luggage was one of the last to come up, which was annoying.  But at least it was there!

My parents were waiting for me and I was happy to see them!! We stopped to get something to eat on the way home and arrived home just in time to watch American Idol!  I was asleep by 9:30 and didn't wake up until almost 10:00 this morning!  I did wake up around 2:00am (would have been 8am Poland time) but was easily able to fall back asleep (thankfully!!)

And now, here I am, sitting at my kitchen table in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Yesterday morning I woke up in Krakow, Poland.  I had a wonderful week, making new friends, learning about the world, a different country, and learned even in the face of something terrible new life can begin new again.

Thanks for reading this blog and sharing this journey with me.

(p.s. I do plan to go back and add to some of the older posts!!  Many times when I did the posts it was late at night and I was really tired, so be sure to check back!!)



Keep checking back!

Hello everyone!

Today is my LAST day in Poland.  I want to get the most out of this experience, so this will most likely be my last post until I return home.

BUT... please keep checking back because once home I plan on updating and adding to posts!!  I feel like I have lots more to say and show you (including some videos!) but want to spend time on getting it ready!  And I'll be able to do that when I get home and finish my project for the trip!!

See you all soon!!

:-)