I recently accompanied a divers group of 20 university students from two L.A. schools on a trip to Poland. The classes were summer extension of a new class offered called “The Holocaust in Poland” and I participated as an educator and technologist. I have always been interested in my Jewish heritage, but my focus is usually on global Jewish communities and cultures. I am really interested in where Jewish communities exist and have existed and the mixture of the Jewish and non-Jewish cultures in things like music, diet, costume and other cultural identifiers. It is amazing for me to see how many similarities there are. For example, Jewish liturgical music in the communities of Iraq or Syria are very, very similar to the Moslem liturgical chants in the same areas. Food is similar- one community shares with the others. And I find this true with all communities and cultures who have migrated from their place of origin to someplace new. Lebanese food in Mexico (Lebanese immigrants), Indian food in England. For me, it is always quite wonderful to see these intersections.
One area that I have studied, but not focused on was the Holocaust. I am more interested in the living and the future than of the past and of the dead. This does not mean that I am unaware of insensitive to history of my heritage or my family. My grandparents came to the US in the early 1900′s, but everyone who stayed behind was completely obliterated, as were most of the European Jewish communities. I have been exposed to the horrors of the holocaust through multiple classes, friendship with survivors and refugees here and in Israel, memorials, museums, books, movies and even graphic novels. The planned, methodical and methodical destruction of the Jewish community truly demonstrated human-kind at it’s worst. Yet, I tend to look for the examples of people who retained their humanity and tried and even succeeded in assisting the multiple communities who were targeted. Raoul Wallenberg, Chiune Sugihara, Hiram Bingham IV and politicians and the multitude of civilians who put their own lives in danger to try to save Jews and stop the slaughter. These examples of courage illustrate the importance of speaking out when we see evil whenever and where ever it appears – Cambodia, Rwanda, Congo, Darfur, Bosnia. I wonder what would have happened if there was social networking, blogs, twitter, or facebook in 1939? Although there are still glaring examples of humans follies and inhumanity, we are still really new to being able to instantly connect with people around the globe for good or for bad. We have developed and made accessible these amazing communication tools that we are now learning how to use. I guess that it is up to us to decide what to do with them.
My week in Poland was intense and wonderful. I was challenged and inspired aesthetically, historically and emotionally. I really was not prepared for the depth of emotions and feelings that I experienced. It is a beautiful country, with a very complex history and legacy. It made me think of the movie “Shrek” where Shrek compared ogres to onions- that there are many, many layers. Following is one of the blogs that I posted on our class site: http://grou.ps/theculturebridge
One of the powerful moments of this trip happened last week at Lutotow- a small village in the Lodz area (about two hours by bus from Lodz). The countryside on the way was incredibly lush, green and beautiful. We traveled through forests and farmland, through small villages that could be described as quaint and farmhouses- many of which were pre-war brick or wooden structures and still are occupied. Cows and chickens and farmers walked and worked their yards.
We reached Lutotow- a town that one of our translators described as frozen in time. A word on our translators- Kaya and Kristoph- she a student and he a professor, both delightful, friendly and of the present and the future. We had dinner with them the night before at a Polish restaurant in Wodz. You may think, well, of course it is a Polish restaurant, it’s in Poland. But as Kaya said to me, the best Polish food is home cooked and Poles go out – they eat Pizza or things like that. But the Pirogi were tasty, the vodka (bison grass) was tasty and the company was warm and friendly.
We arrived in the town square at Lutotow- the sky was clear and rich blue, the sun was hot and there was no shade. But the mayor was there, the chief rabbi of Poland, dignitaries and representatives of the Polish and German governments as well as Polish representatives of cultural organizations promoting Jewish-Polish reconcilliations. The mayor gave a very heartfelt speech – he apologized for that happened. A friend who spoke Polish said that the language and tone was true. He said that the pre-war town was 80% Jewish. Now there are none. And it was this situation that made him think- What happened to all the Jews? The Rabbi spoke in Polish and English and said several psalms in Hebrew- perhaps the first time that Hebrew was spoken in the village since the war.
The ceremony was attended by a group of students who slowly pealed away- this history is very far from their reality. And some elderly who listened attentively and watched as the various dignitaries and LMU and CSUN students placed flowers on the large stone with the new bronze plaque commemorating the lost Jews.
After the ceremony, we all went to the local culture house for coffee and cake and for us to interview some of the elderly Polish residents. This was an amazing, amazing experience. There were about 6 old men, who seemed just waiting to speak with us. One gentleman really could not wait and it was hard to get him to pause so that we could gather a group and translator. The first question that we asked was : “what happened to you? what was you experience?” These old men were little children when the nazis came in to the town. They had Jewish friends and neighbors whom they were close with who suddenly vanished. There was nothing said about it. People there were trying to survive the war. But there was a tear in their community and society that was not healed. From the nazi era came the soviet era with all of the pain and suffering that the soviets brought. Post-soviet society did not bring the immediate healing of society. This does not minimize the terrible loss of the Jewish people of 1/2 of their community, but healing of the past and rebuilding the future cannot happen if we do not address all of the pain and suffering of everyone.
These old men have been carrying their pain for 60 and 70 years. They are not urban academics, but rural farms people whose community was also ripped. Asking them to tell about their experiences allowed them to open up their hearts and souls to find a bit of peace. Our feeling was that after speaking to us, they would go home and speak to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren about things long held inside. Perhaps this is really what is needed to mend the past and build for the future.
