After a long and difficult day yesterday, today started off at a leisurely pace. While some teachers chose to participate in tai chi, others decided to ease into the morning with a leisurely breakfast and an extra cup of coffee. Then it was off to Kazimier, the former Jewish ghetto.
On the way we passed Schindler’s factory and discussed how his actions saved the lives of many during the Holocaust. We then went to the Empty Chairs Memorial in the Krakow ghetto square. It contains a grouping of chairs separated with emptiness between them. They are there to evoke a feeling of separation, disconnect, and loss.
One moving moment during the morning was visiting Temple Synagogue. The synagogue was finished being built in 1860 and underwent renovations in the 1930s. It was very touching to hear Freda, one of the members of our group, share her story. She explained to our group that her grandparents donated the money for two of the stained glass windows in the synagogue during the renovations in the 1930s. It is incredible that those beautiful windows survived the war.
After listening to Freda’s story it was off to the JCC for Shabbat lunch. While we enjoyed a good meal and the fellowship of our friends, we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to three amazing speakers. These speakers helped provide additional personal perspectives to our experiences this week. One was a Holocaust survivor who is currently the most active member of the JCC. She recounted how she survived the Holocaust by fleeing Krakow with her mother and passed herself off as non-Jewish. Her mother even went so far as to have her baptized Catholic to provide the paper trail that saved her life. After the war, she returned to Krakow and never left. She said that even after the war she was and still is proud to be a Jew. This is evident in the fact that she had her Bat Mitzvah several years ago.
The last speaker was a man who currently teaches in Poland. He discussed the effects of ethno-nationalism on Polish education. It brings hope to hear him state that he and other educators are trying to bring back the Jewish story to the narrative in the classroom. He ended his speech by saying the Holocaust is the story of us, the other us. That if he was not willing to tell the story, then who will help?
With only one full day left in Poland, we as educators will soon be returning to the States. We will be working through the daunting task before us. How will we teach our students the past and look to the future? How will we grapple with the question if not me, then who will help? How will we take the powerful information we have gained on this journey to help make change? How will we answer the call to action?
Renee Worst is a teacher at Avella Junior/Senior High School.