First Day - Warsaw
After a long night of airport security and a plane ride, we arrived at Chopin International Airport in Warsaw at around 6 a.m. Stepping out of the plane I was hit with the sudden chill of 40℉ with overcast.
Getting off the plane at Warsaw
After getting through customs and retrieving our bags, we met our pilot, Chris, and our bus driver out side the airport. We left for the Cmetarz Żydowski, a historical Jewish Cemetery in the middle of Warsaw
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The Cmetarz Żydowski in Warsaw
There, we learned about all kinds of Jews living in Warsaw in their own time periods. For example we learned about L. L. Zamenhof who was a linguist living in Poland who created the hoped-to-be universal language, Esperanto. He had a daughter who was buried adjacent to him.
Getting off the plane at Warsaw
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The Cmetarz Żydowski in Warsaw
There, we learned about all kinds of Jews living in Warsaw in their own time periods. For example we learned about L. L. Zamenhof who was a linguist living in Poland who created the hoped-to-be universal language, Esperanto. He had a daughter who was buried adjacent to him.
Dr. Zamenhof's grave with the symbol of his creation under it.
We then explored other people's graves such as the "Mameh" of Warsaw. She was a famous theater director who performed with her troupe all around Europe.
The famous "Mameh's" grave."
From there we went for lunch/shopping break where most of us were excited to find the Starbucks. Then we went to the Ghetto wall. We learned how 15 feet of brick separated horror from modern society.
This wall separated two worlds
We then went to the Umschlagplatz where hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews were kept before being sent to their deaths at Treblinka death camp.
The Umschlagplatz memorial
We walked to memorials of people who did acts of Iberleben, or living through the pain. One particular
story that caught my eye was the story of Janusz Korczak. Throughout his life, Korczak committed his
time to children. He wrote several books on children and though he never had any of his own, he ran an
orphanage where him and "his" Jewish kids lived. Though during the Holocaust, Janusz had many
opportunities to escape, he would not leave the children. Even to his death in Treblinka, he was reported
to have sung songs with his children. Through his act of Iberleben, Janusz was immortalized on the streets
of Warsaw.
A statue of Janusz and his children in the Cmetarz Żydowski
story that caught my eye was the story of Janusz Korczak. Throughout his life, Korczak committed his
time to children. He wrote several books on children and though he never had any of his own, he ran an
orphanage where him and "his" Jewish kids lived. Though during the Holocaust, Janusz had many
opportunities to escape, he would not leave the children. Even to his death in Treblinka, he was reported
to have sung songs with his children. Through his act of Iberleben, Janusz was immortalized on the streets
of Warsaw.
A statue of Janusz and his children in the Cmetarz Żydowski
We ended our day with a memorial for the Jewish resistance or the Z.O.B. in the Warsaw ghetto. They pushed back the Germans for a month until the whole ghetto was destroyed. Even though this was a great failure, it brought the attention of several armies and militias including the Polish army.
There we sang Hatikva for those brave people who fought against all odds.
Question: If you were in the shoes of Janusz Korczak would you stay with your children or do something else? If so what?
Question: If you were in the shoes of Janusz Korczak would you stay with your children or do something else? If so what?
This question is linking me back to my answer to Beca's question. I would like to say that I would want to stay with the children, especially since I have a passion for helping out the youth and those in need. However, I do not really know how I would react in that situation, since I feel like my "fight or flight" and natural human instincts will come in. If it ends up with me not helping the children by joining them in the car and singing, then I like to believe that I will be helping them in other ways. For example, I could comfort them until they get onto the cart. I truly don't know what I would do. My heart wishes that I would help, but my gut is telling me that I am not as brave as Janusz Jorczak.
ReplyDeleteOh, this is a tough question... Jarusz's life were those kids, they were his family, they were his light, and if I as Janusz would have left them I think that my point of life would have left with those children. Just thinking about it I start to cry because it is such a hard choice to do. I think I would have gone with them because if not, I think I would have felt guilty untill the end of my life for abandoning them, and the ride on the train would have given me a chance to spend my last minutes of life with the people that I as Janusz Korczak loved the most.
ReplyDeleteI think that if I was in his shoes I would have stayed with the kids. From what it seems the kids were his family and as Lilo says in Lilo & Stich "...family never gets left behind." I wouldn't be able to leave the people I love to save myself, especially kids.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion He must have been an amazing person to stay with his “kids” if I were in his shoes I would have tried to escape with the kids a dna tried to have saved as many as them as possible
ReplyDeleteI would have stayed with the children, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. To Janusz Korczak, they were his family and that's something that is extremely important to me. I wouldn't ever want to live without my family in the world, and I feel like that's something he also thought about
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to what Dani said and my response to Beca's question, I can't say whether or not I would. I would hope that if I was in Janusz Korczak shoes, knowing how important the children were to him, I would like to think I would never leave the children to go alone. However I'm in no place to try and say if I would.
ReplyDeleteJanusz Korczak was in a very unique situation, and I can't fathom being in a similar position. I would like to think that in his position I would do the same thing, but I probably wouldn't. I would most likely take the SS officer's offer to escape, and survive until the end of the war.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly believe that I would have stayed with the children. To Janusz Korczak, these children were the humanity he had left in a time when Nazis were trying so hard to strip him of it. I love children very much, and especially if they were the only bit of humanity I had left I could never let that go. Besides that, I can't fathom being in his situation and being mentally or physically able to let these kids ride to their deaths alone. In a time that miserable, I would take whatever option saves me spiritually as there is never actually a guarantee of physical safety.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely try to stay with the children if my own death were to happen eventually. To end your life giving hope to many children when you know there is none is an amazing thing to do and worthy of appreciation.
ReplyDeleteI would stay with my kids if it meant my life, so yes. Family as family and I can't even imagine being in a situation being separated from my family, and probably never seeing them again. If that did happen to me I wouldn't even want to live. Although I fight with my family I know that they'll be there for me when other people aren't.
ReplyDeleteI think me as a lover of children, would’ve stayed with them. I think it would’ve been a tough decision but in the end I probably would've stayed. Knowing that I would probably die eventually would make it somewhat of an easier decision. Giving hope to the children is very honorable. I think what Janusz did was extremely brave and it encompasses a lot of what we learned about the Holcaust.
ReplyDelete