Tykocin Blog
Tykocin was the second and my favorite day in Poland. We started the day by going on a two hour bus ride to get there. Tykocin was a very close knit community. Everyone who was from there would introduce themselves by saying "Hi I'm _____ from Tykocin" because they were so proud of where they came from. Once there we were there we went to a synagogue, then to the former market, to the river, did a tfilah in the synagogue, then took a silent bus ride to the Lupochova forest.
The synagogue was the first place we went once we arrived. It was a beautiful place with prayers decorating the walls because at the time it was very expensive to print all of the books to pray with. The synagogue was used to pray and study torah and also to read letters from people who had made Aliyah. There we also talked about different people in the community including Levi Tallismacher. He made the best tallitot out of anyone. Everyone wanted an original from him. They had parts of the prayers that merchants brought in on them. They were so popular that his grandkids made a tallit store in New York to sell them.
Dani with Sarah Cohen's camel in the synagogue
The market square was the second place we went. It was a short walk away from the synagogue and was the meeting place for the Jewish people of Tykocin. Everything relied on the market because it was the center of lively hood and trade. As merchants, this is how the Jews got money. Having a steady income was what the Jews needed in order to study and create torah.
The synagogue was the first place we went once we arrived. It was a beautiful place with prayers decorating the walls because at the time it was very expensive to print all of the books to pray with. The synagogue was used to pray and study torah and also to read letters from people who had made Aliyah. There we also talked about different people in the community including Levi Tallismacher. He made the best tallitot out of anyone. Everyone wanted an original from him. They had parts of the prayers that merchants brought in on them. They were so popular that his grandkids made a tallit store in New York to sell them.
the Market square ft. Jeremy and a car
After the market we walked down to the River. At the river we heard the story of besht. One Friday he arrived at the shtetl and all Jews were super excited and everyone wanted him to sit with them but he decides to sit with an old man. The old man knows all of the prayers and stands for the whole service. That night he goes to old mans house and gets dinner with him. They study prayers all night long together. When Shabbat is over the old man says thank you for teaching me and the besht leaves. When the man goes to pray he realizes that he doesn't remember anything from the previous night. The old man runs to river to find the Besht says to the man no! you're going to die if you go in the water!! But he goes anyway and besht is like what???? no!! And the man says I forgot everything you taught me come back and besht says no you should go back to what you were doing before because you were doing an amazing job. He realizes that everyone has there own way of praying and no matter how you pray it is correct.
The river that the Besht was at with the old man
Next we went back to the synagogue to have a short Tfilah service. It was very nice to be able to pray again for the people who couldn't during the Shoah. After praying and dancing we all got silent and boarded the bus to go to the Lupochova forest.
A prayer on the wall of the Synagogue
At the forest we all got off the bus and walked deep into it and split into classes. We talked about a girl from a different forest that watched everyone in her community get shot and when it was her turn she got shot, fell into the grave but didn't die. When she finally got the strength to stand up the Nazis were gone and she ran for safety. She was saved by a nearby peasant who saw her. We then walked back to the three mass graves where 1500 people were killed. I walked to the first one on the right and stood in silence I thought about how it was odd that such a tragedy could have happened in such a beautiful place. I looked up at the forest there was snow falling, and a bird chirping. It was on of the prettiest things I have ever seen... but then I looked down and saw some land with a fence around it. It was out of place.
Roses around the graves
I thought that such a tragedy shouldn't have happened in such a beautiful place... My question for the class is did you think that the horrific killings shouldn't have happened in the forest or the beauty of the forest didn't belong near the graves and why?
I am not too sure on how I feel on this question... It's not like the Nazi's were thinking "wow, look at this beautiful forest, lets kill the Jews here." The forest is what was most logical. It was nearby, so the Jews could walk to their own deaths, the Nazi's didn't have to pay for mass transportation. The graves being in the woods would hide the bodies of the Jews, so that people wouldn't see how horrific the Nazi party is. The forest was practical so that is where the mass execution took place. It has nothing to do with the beauty of the forest.
ReplyDeleteI think the Nazis killing the Jews in the forest was the most practical way for the Nazis. I don’t think it had anything to do with the beauty or not but was based off of strategic thinking
ReplyDeleteThis question has me uncertain. The Nazis used the forests because it was logical and the only thing they were thinking of was how the could kill as many Jews at one time. The forest was one of the answers to this question. I think we can't control where nature and beauty blooms, but it does send a message about how there can be bad in beauty and beauty in bad
ReplyDeleteBecause the Jews shouldn't have died in the first place, it's difficult for me to try and answer this question. However, when in the forest I thought it was awful that the forest looked so beautiful before I had known what had happened there. After learning about the horrific events that took place the forest no longer seemed beautiful to me. It's odd to me because I found this in a lot of the different places we visited, but I feel that the events that took place outweigh the beauty of the scenery.
ReplyDeleteI do not think I can answer this question with a response it is trying to provoke. This is because, like Kate, I do not think there is anything that makes sense about what happened there. I believe that the only intentional thing in the Holocaust was the systematic killing of jews, not where or how. I also think that beauty and nature is inevitable in many places, and the beauty and horrific acts in it do not have any relation.
ReplyDeleteI thought very differently from everyone here. I think the graves themselves are beautiful. The reason for their existence is haunting and a horrible thing, but the graves contrast with the bleakness of the forest. If anything, the memorial itself was beautiful while the forest of devoid of life and beauty. To see the remembrance of such a horrible massacre was beautiful, and the area shines brightly contrasted to the rest of the forest.
ReplyDeleteIts not like the Nazi's had a very wide selection on where to kill the Jews of Tykocin. They had a forest where it was hard to be seen and walking distance from the town. This was sadly an efficient way of killing the Jews. I believed the forest had an eerie aesthetic. It was a beautiful forest especially with the show falling, but it has a dark past.
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ReplyDeleteI do not know how to answer this question. I do not know how i feel about the beauty of the forest. When I entered it all i could think of was how the Nazi drove Jews there and made others run after the truck. All i could imagine was about the Jewish life that used to be there and how it was completely wiped out, how if those Jews weren't killed so many people's lives would have been different and so many people and descendants of those Jews would have got a chance to just live a life.
ReplyDeleteThis question is difficult to answer. First of all, the killings shouldn't have happened at all. As to the specific location, I think it's irrelevant. I don't think one can give an opinion on whether the beauty of a location should have anything to do with whether or not 1,500 people are slaughtered there. The killing shouldn't have happened in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that everywhere I went in Poland it was hard for me to think of ANYTHING as pretty because of all the horrific crimes that went down there. When I first got to the forrest in Tykocin I did think it was pretty, but the whole day got me by major surprise, as I wasn't expecting that whole lesson to happen. I think that the killings of Jews in Tykocin shouldn't have taken place in nature because nature is serene and naturally beautiful. When i am in nature I feel best, and relaxed. But as I'm thinking about this question the people who died got to see a beautiful sight before they died, and after they died it makes the place a horror show. I think that the people who passed away in Tykocin deserve to be buried in nature, but not where there brutal death took place.
ReplyDeleteI think the killings were monsterous of course, but whether or not they were done in the right place is a different story. Of course, all mass killings are terrible and shouldn’t take place anywhere. But to me the beauty and quiet of the forest truely represented their lives.
ReplyDelete