Antisemitism in Poland

Today we visited two organizations and learned the ways they worked to stop anti-semtism and other hate around Poland.

The first organization aimed to stop it at it's roots, to educate people about Poland's Jewish past. They were called "Dialogue Among Nations" and go schools to teach young people about the Jewish neighborhoods that existed in their town before the war. I think today was the first day I started to fathom how much of Poland's past was wiped out by the holocaust. Jews were such a huge part of Poland's history and Poland itself. And in such a short amount of time, they were gone. Today, we need programs like this to teach kids there even was a Jewish past. I loved the program; I think it's so helpful and has the potential to really change Poland's collective memory.

Next, we visited Heijt Stop: a program which tracked anti-semitic and other hate graffiti and either remove it, urge other's to remove it, or notify the police. They were extremely insightful to where these traces of anti-Semitism come from in Europe. They seem to be so deeply rooted. The reasons ranged from the idea that Jews killed Jesus to sports rivalries.

Today was the first day I thought Poland should tell it's history without such a victimized narrative. I think guilt could be productive. It's hard to hear about anti-semetism only days after visiting a concentration camp. We walked through where the concentration camp used to be the day before, it is so eerie. My naivety cannot let me fathom how it's possible to see what the holocaust was, what happened in these camps and be capable of anti-semitism.

Next, perhaps my favorite part of the day, we took place part in Warsaw's Memory March. Here we walked from where the 6,000 jews a day got deported to Treblinka to where they discovered the capsules hidden under ground where they found buried documents and personal accounts of the ghetto: made for the future, so we can learn from it. Here, members of the Jewish institute read the personal accounts out loud. It felt eerie to hear the words, to think of what they meant.

It felt amazing to be part of the memory of the nation, and it was empowering just being there.

Leaving Berlin, Dzien dobry Poland!

Today we left Berlin. I was not in the least bit excited to leave; Berlin was beautiful. It's culture seemed to be so accepting, artistic and beautiful. It was so different from Munich and Nuremberg. It of course, had a different way to handle the past and had a different past all together. I feel so lucky to be able to learn the same topic from the  so many different perspectives.

Of course, even though I am sad to leave Berlin, I am excited to be here in Poland! And not just because Veronica gives me a piece of candy every time I remember a word in Polish (Veronica if you're reading this: do jutra! I am also excited to learn about this topic from another perspective and learn all about Poland's culture!

The Cold War

Today we spent the day discussing the cold war. It seems to me, that Berlin is soaked in the past of the wall and of this war. Almost similarly to how Munich was still covered in WWII. I can't help but think about how this cold war things has almost made the holocaust less prevalent in the city itself. Munich was trying to leave it's fame for the perpetrators behind, but Berlin seems to be taking pride in the reunification after the cold war almost everywhere you look. WWII seems like an afterthought in almost a completely different way. We went to this small exhibit with artifacts of the time and it really allowed me to piece together the time before the wall came down for both East and West Berlin.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was hearing Greta (our amazing tour guide) talk about her experience when the wall came down. She stood over a monument which documented the hours before and told us what was going on politically and what she was doing. When she heard the wall was coming down, she thought it must be some other wall in another city. It was cute to see it from a child's perspective; not knowing that these are unusual circumstances, thinking there must be so many walls in so many cities.

The World Cup!

Words cannot express how amazing it has been to be in Berlin for the world cup. I feel incredibly lucky to see this much pride and excitement around me. To be honest, I never enjoyed a sporting event so much. In Boston, we take so much pride in our sports but I have never taken a part of it. This felt so different to me, it's like if the Red Sox won the world serees X3, and they won it for the entire USA. We went to the street where there was a chain of bars and after, we left the bar and stood outside where everyone was pouring into the streets, cars were honking, people were screaming and there was so much excitement. Walking from the bar was probably my favorite part of the night. It was an incredible experience and I feel so lucky to have had it.

Welcome to Berlin!

We arrived in Berlin and went on a four hour bike tour of the city. We saw so much of Berlin, monuments, the wall, etc. The whole time I could not help but think about post war Germany, especially the war. All important structures either needed to repair bullet holes or rebuild all together. Berlin was left in ruins after suffering three wars in a decade. The city is in so many ways a new city, yet in so many ways not. So much was rebuilt based on what was built before, trying to echo the past much like in Germany. The city is in massive amounts of debt, leading to the city slogan "poor but sexy." Berlin seems to then be a quite interesting city. It has so much history but can you really rebuild history?

Nuremberg

I have so much to stay, I do not know where to start! We started our tour in court room 600 where the trials took place. The room was in a similar position it was for the trials; with some important changes we learned about. Then, we went up to the main exhibit. It was broken into two parts: the first room was where the first round of trials took place and a second, on the subsequent trials and beyond. The first room was packed with people, but, when you walked into the second there seems to be no interest. First reason, I think the architecture of the two exhibits does not invite you into the second room. It is easy to look over it and theres is shut glass door between the exhibits. This seems so strange because I found the second room 100X more interesting. It was the space for me to analyze what we can and should do with all this, what we have learned from it and what we should learn from it. Besides who is responsible for war crimes, that someone is responsible for war crimes. It does not seem write to ignore the room where you can learn of contemporary genocide and war crimes, because in essence this is what we do on a day to day. Ending the tour here was powerful because it made me question what we are learning from all of this.

The next day we went to the Nazi Rally grounds where we questioned what to do with all of the physical space. It was heavy undertaking; most of us do not know. It would seem wrong to destroy them because this does not seem practical and it would feel like we were trying to delete history. Letting all the buildings stand as is does not seem right because it covers to much of the city and it would be dangerous. You do not want to glorify any of the structures. Memorializing all of this space seems unfair to those of this generation; your city being weighted down the past and a generation you did not know. Still, building up from it does not seem right either, so much of it was made from pieces of prisoners in concentration camp and it seems strange to sit on the stadium built by prisoners while you are at a Metallica concert. Most of us left not knowing the right thing to do, it is not an easy undertaking.

Goodbye Munich!

Leaving Munich was a bit sad. I learned so much from the city and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I had certain expectations about Munich; I thought it would be a bit of a sad city brought down by it's history.  Instead it was a vibrant city, full of life and of course history. Munich made me wonder how other German cities such as Berlin will handle it's past.

And so we're off to other German cities! We got to Erlangen today, a small city outside of Nuremberg. I feel like I am in some sort of rom com but without the rom and the com. It's an adorable small city. A lot of it is along a main street where there are small shops, and little cars. We took a guided city tour where we saw the town, beer halls, cellars, the place where they host a beer festival (which by the way is older than octoberfest.)

Tomorrow, we learn more about the Nuremberg trials. I've done some googling and realized I did not know as much as I thought. I am still unsure of why the trails were held in Nuremberg, perhaps they had the space and resources for it and it was as simple as that. Hearing about the mass of horrific trials that took place there I wonder if it is something Nuremberg will try to ignore like in Munich or if the positive connotations of the trials and justice will cause the city to share most of it's history.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Yesterday was so amazing, I cannot explain in words, so I won't!

German Pride

Today was so amazing. We went on a Nazi tour of Munich. It was a strange to see such a beautiful city which has so much sad history. We would see beautiful gardens and then learn that they were used by the Nazi party to show degenerate art. Or a beautiful square where we would stop to see a stone in place where the Munich synagogue used to be.

We saw the modern art museum where the nazi party used to display Aryan or acceptable art. I couldn't help but think about what a perfect use of the space. It's difficult to decide what to do with infrastructure the Nazi party used in Germany but changing it to display the exact art they tried to shame, seems almost poetic.

Then we went to the University of Munich. First of all, it was an extremely beautiful University. Probably the most beautiful I have ever seen. There, there as a White Rose Exhibit where we learned about the handful of students who were part of a student resistance. They mailed and tried spreading pamphlets urging people against the Nazi party. Of course, this is such an amazing story because at a time where you were so lucky to be who you were and to be safe, it is incredibly beautiful to put yourself in harm's way and eventually sacrifice yourself for what you believe in.

They were caught, arrested and beheaded only a few days after. I read a bit about the interrogation and it made me quite sad, they seemed to be tortured into telling the Nazi party about friends of theirs who helped and whatnot. What a horrible place to be put in.

I was also impressed with the story of Sophie Scholl in general. It's not often you hear about woman from this time period being amongst one of the bravest in her country. I fully enjoyed everything about the day.

When we finished the tour, we went back to get ready for the world cup game. Nothing makes me appreciate a happy event like this quite like a day of learning about Nazi Germany. It was spectacular. I could also not help but think how amazing it is to see so much German pride. Sports can be a good way to bring people together. Germany lives in the shadow of WWII, I could imagine shortly after it must not have been a very good thing to say you're from Germany and it's nice to see the pride and see Germany writing a new history for itself.

Remembering

Today we went to the site of Dachau's concentration camp. We started the tour learning why the camp was built in Dachau: of the old factory which was abandoned there, the houses build in the 20s that were emptied after the factory was shut down, and the train station there. It became the first concentration camp, to serve as a model for the others and had a morbid and important history.

I also learned of the different colored patches and shapes sewed onto prisoner's uniforms which I did not know existed prior to going and of the division of those in the camps due to political reasons versus those there for. 

It was strange walking through the camp, how easily disconnected you can feel. of course, it is eerie and I felt the weight of a lot of horrible information on my shoulders. But at the same time, a lot felt disconnected being there. It was easier than I thought to separate all the information I was hearing from the physical space around me. 

Admittedly, there was even a point leaving the camp, I was quite happy. It gave me a nice feeling to know that people of all races, religions, and sexualities visit the camp everyday freely. Although prejudice is definitely not fully in the past, it is a very nice feeling to know here, in this particular place the catastrophe is only a thing to remember, a point of gathering for all types of people. 

After we went to the camp, we visited Herr Ernst Grube, a holocaust survivor. His father was a communist and his mother was a jew and he was one of three children. He stressed to us how when the nazi party came to power, it at first was a very slow process. First, they were concerned with eliminating all political enemies, not as much concerned about the Jews. Instead, they aimed to push Jews out of society by reaffirming prejudices and antisemitism of the past and trying to create a sense of superiority amongst non Jewish Germans. Synagogues, he explained became very important as it was a place to feel safe and come together.

His family was liberal and non religious but lived in the apartments behind the synagogue. He thought he was first and foremost a German, not a Jew. In early 1938, they took down the synagogue, and told the Jewish families they needed to leave the apartments.Because his father was not Jewish, he tried to negotiate staying but it did not work. They stayed at the apartment until gas, electricity and water were turned off and it seemed impossible to live there. 

His parents brought him and his siblings to a Jewish orphanage later that year when he was 6 years old. There is where he learned about Jewish life: the holidays and created a family bond with the other 45 children at the orphanage, a mutual respect and friendship. When they would leave the orphanage to play, they would be spat at or cursed at, they could not go to school or be a part of any sport or organization and felt outside of society. 

In 1941, he had to start wearing the yellow Jewish star as a further point of humiliation and removing from society. He told us that up to this point, the goal was not to place Jews into concentration camps. However, after the attack of the soviet union, everything changed very much, very quickly. Signs were put up with the yellow star that said "Whoever sees this sign, this person is our enemy" which he showed us. Another law was passed that stated Jews were not allowed to live under the roof as non Jews and slowly but surely, Jews lost all human rights. 

By the end of 1941, Jews were moved into ghettos where they started to be transported. 23 out of 46 of the children in the orphanage recieved a letter that they were to be brought to the train station. After three years of being together, friends have to say goodbye and wonder where they will be going and if they would ever see each other again. He found out later these trains were brought to Luthania where after a 5 day trip they were shot an killed. 

He described going to the place where they were brought and the reasoning to be on one hand to learn and teach, but the other to in a way, go in search for his lost family. 

His immediate family was lucky. Because his dad was not jewish, they were not amongst the first to be called. His father was urged to divorce his Jewish mother, but he refused which is what kept the family safe and alive. While his mother's side of the family, unfortunately, was not so fortunate. 

He did not receive a letter for his mother and siblings to be separated until 3 months before liberation and so, his immediate family remained alive. However, when the war ended he said he had the feeling he had lost his youth. I could not imagine such circumstances: you do not have friends, you have not gone to school, you must start a new life because you have lost so much of your old one.

I asked him if he had experiences any anti-Semitism after the war or if it all seemed to disappear overnight and his answer really, really saddened me. He told us he did experience any more discrimination but that there was no Jews left to discriminate against. 

I wanted to write as much of his story as I could so I could remember it. It was an amazing day to learn about history and also to put life in perspective. 

München!

Today we had a guided tour of Munich, it is a beautiful and extremely interesting city. We first walked through a square with shops, cathedrals, etc.

We went to a few churches with different styles. One, where the head of the church spoke out against the Nazi party and was moved to a camp; he survived but died shortly after liberation. It was a nice sentiment to try and make him a saint in order to have more recent saints to look at as a role model. Another, had extremely interesting architecture which created the allusion the church was nearly twice as long as it actually was.

On a smaller scale: it is quite funny to see the small cultural differences of a city like this. From getting your bicycle license as a child to the traditional style clothing on sale at many large shops.

On a larger scale: it is crazy to see how deep WWII runs in the culture of the city. For example, the change in police force to more friendly as not to remind people of nazis or even ensuring the Munich Olympic games have friendly, non- totalitarian color schemes in the 70s. It seems this city cannot help but live in a post-war shadow. It really makes you realize how it was not so long ago.

We went to Hofbrauhaus for lunch where they used to brew the royal beer. Even here has WWII history intrenched within it. It was here Hitler had one of the first political congregations to speak of the ideology of the Nazi Party. This was not something advertised, a tourist would not have known without prior research or a tour guide which opens your eyes to how much this period is a part of Munich's history now.

It is also so strange how a lot of these cathedrals were rebuilt the way they were before they were destroyed in the war. On one hand it, of course, makes perfect sense but it also a bit sad as it feels like a city with a rich history trying to gain some of it back after it was destroyed in the war. Europe itself has such an old history in comparison to the U.S. It is something I've noticed to be valued a lot and it is sad to realize just how much was changed or destroyed by both the Nazi party and the war itself.

After exploring the city, we went o the Munich Standtmuseum. Our tour guide gave us a very good and concise history of how the Nazi party rose and fell in Munich. From the seduction through propaganda to the Arian ideology of the party and the way they utilized medicine, law, literature, and art to ensure German culture had only one, narrow view. In the end, she gave a brief comment about German responsibility after the war which I found very interesting. It is hard to know who exactly should take the responsibility in such a large catastrophe. It is a difficult, grey area to grapple with.

After the museum, we were cheered up by some delicious chocolate from Milka and walking through the square a bit more.

Also on a happier note: they sell gum in pill bottles here.