Thankfully, after delays…I can report that the planes have landed, the first day of touring has concluded, and we have had our welcome dinner. It is 10:50 in Poland and many are probably drifting into dreamland to adjust to the time change. The first day was a soggy one, yet we persevered on into the storm to visit the Jewish cemetery, and then the Noyzk synagogue, which is the only remaining synagogue in Warsaw. The tour for teens is led by Mark and the tour for teachers is led by Avi, and moving between both groups is Howard Chandler, a Holocaust survivor from Toronto, Canada.
We are looking forward to drier conditions tomorrow and a busy day of touring Warsaw as well as a visit to the Treblinka memorial. After seeing the city of Warsaw today (through the windows of the bus), tomorrow we begin to explore (by foot) life prior to the World War Two, life during the war, and the ghettoization of Warsaw as shown through remnants and memorials around the city. Since Warsaw was devastated by the war, this walk attempts to trace the progression of Nazi politics that for so many culminated in deportations to concentration and death camps. The Treblinka memorial is on the site of a former death camp used from 1942-Fall 1943 as part of the Aktion Reinhard camps. The camp was dismantled and planted over with grass before the end of the war. Recently, Treblinka has been in the news due to a documentary titled “Hitler’s Killing Machine” showing research by British forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls that shows her and her team at the site excavating and reveals her findings about the camp that had been hidden for 70 years. This documentary is available on the Smithsonian Channel. This camp is in driving distance from Warsaw and the burial site for hundreds of thousands of victims of the Holocaust.
Hopefully, if you have a family member on the tour they have reached you by the wifi connection at the hotel, which is my way of communicating with all of you on this blog.
Signing off for the evening to prepare for tomorrow.
I have attached two of my photos: a photo of our cemetery tour & a photo of the Treblinka memorial from 2012 to give viewers an idea of what the travelers will see tomorrow. Poland study tour 2014.
