Jan 1, 2019 - A Day Exploring Krakow

Well as New Year revellers, we all failed miserably last night. I was in bed by 9 and the girls finally woke up, had some noodles for dinner and hit the bed. We were woken intermittently by the noise of revellers in the nearby Old Town Square but it was probably the best night sleep we have all had. Later start this morning to do an Old Town walking tour which started at Florians Gate one of the many wall entrances into medieval Krakow. Had a great tour guide this morning and he was quite humorous as well as informative. It will be...

Dec 31, 2018 - A Day for Reflection at Auschwitz

DAY 4 Urghhh, seems like about day 15 instead of day 4 of this trip. Still a broken night’s sleep by us all. All up and semi organised by 6 with a breakfast of toast and Vegemite (yes, I always take a tube of Vegemite with me) and toast with leftover beans and cheese. Not very exciting but filling for such an early start. Met by our tour bus right on time and one more hotel to pick up people and we were on our way to Osweicm, the Polish name of the town renamed in German by the Nazis to Auschwitz. It was just after daylight when we arrived...

Dec 30, 2018 - Off to Poland and the Salt Mines For Us

DAY 3 Up at 4am and got ourselves organised and out the door of the hotel to an uber at 5am for a half hour trip to Schonfeld airport and a 7am one hour flight to Krakow in Poland for our next destination. Solid rain and biting wind as we made our way to the terminal. We had chosen Ryanair (yes, the infamous lucky if you get there airline) and were dismayed when we entered the terminal at the massive queue of fellow travellers. However the queue moved at a very impressive pace compared to those at Tullamarine at home and it only took about...

Oct 22, 2018 - Warsaw - Poland

I could just duplicate my entry from Warsaw circa 2009. But I'll spare you. Highlights this trip - There are tourists here, including fellow refugees. Paderewski's tomb Chopin's heart A Chopin piano concert with wine The Jewish Uprising Museum - This museum commemorates one of the few instances where the Jews of Europe fought back against the Nazis. In the end their efforts were in vain. Or were they? You get the picture. I'm just trying to prepare myself for the return to the U.S. On my last trip here I rode the train from Warsaw to...

Jul 15, 2018 - Wroclaw

Caught the tram into Wroclaw from our backyard camp (was well set up for about 40 motorhomes). City has a couple of islands and lots of bridges. One covered in padlocks. Had a short wander and then into the square – very busy, with lots of families. Several bubble making enterprises for the kids and lots of little gnomes hidden around the place. They are very cute.

Apr 14, 2018 - Joyous Celebration in the Last Surviving Prewar Synagogue in Warsaw

"The Nożyk Synagogue (Polish: Synagoga Nożyków) is the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland. It was built in 1898-1902 and was restored after World War II. It is still operational and currently houses the Warsaw Jewish Commune, as well as other Jewish organizations." That's the entry in Wikipedia for the place where we celebrated the end of Shabbat. I find myself without words to describe what it felt like to witness 300 young people (we were joined by another March of the Living group) singing, dancing and...

Apr 13, 2018 - Murder of the Children of Tarnow

Before I can tell you about today, I have to tell you about yesterday. Yesterday was the day of the March of the Living. The event that this entire trip is named for. The big day. I spent the day in bed. About 30 of our group (over 10% of us) came down with either food poisoning or norovirus. We all spent the Big Day moving between bed and bathroom. Our medical team was amazing. I don't think they slept for two days. They propped our hotel room doors open with towels so they could constantly check on us without having to get us out of bed....

Apr 11, 2018 - Auschwitz and Birkenau

Last night, on the 5 hour ride from Lodz to Krakow, the schedule called for a "reflections" period about 2-3 hours into the ride. The 39 teens on the bus were to be asked if they wanted to share any reflections or feelings about what they had experienced that day. The ride started out very quietly. The kids were definitely reflecting. However . . . slowly . . . teen life began to emerge again from the back of the bus. Chatter, laughter and eventually music played loudly from someone's IPod. Suddenly, they all burst into song and the party...

Apr 10, 2018 - Radagast and Chelmno

I had a good sleep last night. Feel like a new person. Our first stop today was Radagast. This was the deportation center for the Jews of Lodz and nearby communities. On March 1, 1944 the Jews of Lodz were enclosed in a 1.4 square mile ghetto with no running water and no sewage disposal. One fourth of them died of starvation and disease. The destruction of these people began when the Nazis ordered the ghetto's Judenrat (a Jewish prisoner in the ghetto who was made responsible to see to it that the Nazis commands were carried out) to turn...

Apr 9, 2018 - Even the Veterans Said Today was Brutal!

If not for the fact that there are four other Holocaust Survivors with our group, all of whom have been on the March of the Living numerous times, I would have ended the day believing that I had made a huge mistake thinking I could do this. Fortunately for me, all agreed that the pace of our first day was brutal. Everyone was operating on no sleep for at least 50 hours. We had all dressed in warm clothes because the weather forecast called for temperatures no higher than the mid 50's. Before the flights from Los Angeles to Poland were over...

Oct 21, 2017 - Swinoujscie, Poland

Given we were almost on the Polish/German border we figured “what the heck” and decided to nip into Poland for no better reason than to say we had done so! After knowing a bit of the history and knowing that getting in and out of Poland was not easy in the past, it amazed us that we were driving along and suddenly saw the EU sign on the side of the road indicating we were now out of Germany and into Poland. It was immediately obvious that we were no longer in Germany: roads were poor, many of the shops along the main roads were small and...

Oct 5, 2017 - Warsaw

One day in Warsaw and it’s raining! Started the day visiting the Warsaw Rising Museum. The content of the museum was really good, covering Poland’s involvement in WWII, but the layout was quite confusing. After lunch we went on a quick orientation walk around the Old Town, which was surprisingly small. Warsaw was totally decimated in the war, and the Old Town had been reconstructed exactly has it had been prior to the war. Free time for the rest of the day, so we climbed a tower for the view, walked around the Old Town, drank hot chocolate...