Ken accepted an offer to teach American Civil Procedure at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland the third weekend in November. As we had not been to Poland, we decided to tour a bit of the country. Then Ken looked at the map and saw how close we were to Belarus. "Don't you want to see the home of your ancestors?" he asked. My first response was "No." They hated us, and killed us so why would I want to go to a place where we were not wanted. However, after thinking about it and talking to some relatives I decided that it was "now or never" if I was ever to go to the home of my maternal grandparents.
I started to gather information. I am not into geneology, but I knew I needed some more information. My sister, Robin, is the "keeper of family history" and she connected me with our cousin, Alan Benner, Uncle Sam Benner's son. Sam Benner was grandma's younger brother and told Alan about life in Motele before he left for the United States before 1920. Alan wrote it down and sent a copy to me. From that information I was able to find the general area where the Benner house in Motele was at the time. Alan also sent me a somewhat involved family tree that had been created by another cousin. My uncle Lenny also had written a family history. Leonard had actually visited Yanoveh and Motele in 1937 when he and his mother (my grandmother) went to Europe to visit relatives . The trip was clearly a heroic act on the part of my grandmother given the rise of Nazism and the groundswell of support for Hitler at the time.
Ken and I also talked to Larry Tarkinow, my mother's first cousin. Larry had been living in Yanoveh and Motele at the time of the war. It seems people went back and forth between the two places, both shtetls with a large Jewish population. Around 1942 the Nazis came to Yanoveh and Motele and rounded up the men, had them dig a pit, and then shot them. The Nazis came back to Motele, rounded up the women and children and marched them to their death. During the march, a woman created a commotion by raising her skirt and told Larry to run to the corn fields. He did - he was small and could get lost in the fields. Later, Larry and some others (including our cousin in Israel, Sam Garber) met up in the forest, built a room underground where they and about 10 others lived for about 18 months. During that period of time, partisan groups and others were hiding out in the heavily forested area. The area was quite swampy and the Nazis were reluctant to search the area, not to mention their fear of the partisans. Larry's story, as well as Uncle Sam's story, are not only interesting but are a testament to survival against all odds.
Travel arrangements for Belarus are not easy. We have a friend from Belarus who left in the 80s and the woman who cleans our house is from Belarus. They offered some advise including the necessity of getting a driver to go to the shtetls. Ancestry tourism appears to have taken off in Belarus and there are a number of people who are willing to take you on an ancestry trip for a not insignificant sum of money. On recommendation of my brother in law, Bernie, who had been to Belarus to find his ancestors, we opted for the Jewish Heritage Research Group (JHRG), which according to its website is devoted to preserving Jewish heritage of Belarus. One other reason for going with this organization was that it had a United States telephone number.
Of course, finding a tour guide was really the least of the problems. Belarus is a former soviet republic and probably the republic which has retained the greatest vestiges of the soviet regime. So, a visa is required to go there. And you must have specific travel insurance, a letter of introduction, and a place to stay. And all lines must be filled in on the visa form. I made several calls to the Belarus embassy in Washington, D.C., just to make sure I was crossing the t's and dotting the i's.
Yuri from JHRG sent out the appropriate introductory letter, we got the specific medical insurance, and with fear and trepidation we sent the form, money order, and our passports to the Belarussian embassy to get the visa. We had heard horror stories about delays in getting a visa, and we only had a month to get them. But, thankfully, our passports along with the visas came back with plenty of time to spare.
We started our trip with a flight to Katowice, Poland, to get settled for the teaching gig. We had some time to walk around Katowice, and found a dive Vietnamese restaurant at which to eat. Check out the bike facilities in Katowice, including a bike cafe.
November 7, 2015 - WARSAW
The next day (November 7) we took the train to Warsaw to spend a few days. Our hotel, the Polonia Palace, was a few blocks from the train station and was simply palacial. After we got settled in, we walked to the Old Town, which was maybe 1 Km from the hotel.
There is lots to see in the Old Town, including the Statue of Copernicus, University of Warsaw (UW), Presidential Palace (with guards), Old Town Square, St. Anne's Church, and the Barbican (wall around the old city).
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| The Barbican with Castle in background |
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| Ken and Frederick Chopin |
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| University of Warsaw |
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| Presidential palace |
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| View of St. Anne's from Castle |
Warsaw is a beautiful city, and bicycle and pedestrian friendly, with bike lanes. pedestrian malls, and bicycle stations every few blocks.
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| bicycle lane |
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| Bicycle lane |
Not really knowing where we were going we ended up at the monument to the Warsaw Uprising. A very impressive and moving monument. The pictures below do not do it justice.
We continued our walk, getting lost along the way, but found ourselves in front of the monument to Monte Cassino, a WWII battle in Italy. Crossing the road in Warsaw is a major undertaking. Usually you have to go underground and then figure out which exit to take. If you go out the wrong side, you have to retrace and find the right exit. Finally we work our way to the hotel, and stop to have dinner at a nice restaurant, We reward ourselves with wine at the hotel.
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| Monument to the Warsaw Uprising |
We continued our walk, getting lost along the way, but found ourselves in front of the monument to Monte Cassino, a WWII battle in Italy. Crossing the road in Warsaw is a major undertaking. Usually you have to go underground and then figure out which exit to take. If you go out the wrong side, you have to retrace and find the right exit. Finally we work our way to the hotel, and stop to have dinner at a nice restaurant, We reward ourselves with wine at the hotel.
November 8th - Second day in Warsaw: As mentioned the Polonia Palace is palatial and its breakfast is over the top, with a wide variety of everything, including champagne and vodka. Where to begin? After a very healthy and filling breakfast we head out to the Museum of Science and Culture which is right across the street from the hotel. It's a beautiful day and we are able to get a beautiful view of the city.
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| Museum of Science and Culture |
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| The museum is a venue for wedding pictures. |
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| View of our hotel from the top of the Museum |
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| Stadium that Ruthie helped design |
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| View of old town from atop the Museum |
In the afternoon, we join a Free Walking Tour of Jewish Warsaw with Pse. I ask Pse if he is Jewish; he says no one has ever asked him that, and that he is not. But he is extremely knowledgeable and has clearly studied the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. .Before World War II, the Jewish community in Warsaw stood at about 350,000. That was almost one-third of the city's population and the second-largest Jewish community outside of New York. Toward the end of 1940, the Nazis herded the city's entire Jewish population, as well as around 100,000 Jews from elsewhere in Poland, into a small ghetto area west of the Old Town. The first deportations and mass killings began at the end of 1941. In the 1943 Ghetto Uprising, the Jews heroically rose up against their oppressors. The uprising was quickly put down, and what remained of the ghetto was liquidated.
We walk around the area that was once the ghetto.
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| Monument to the ghetto showing the area of the ghetto |
We go to Umschlagplatz,the square where starting 22 July 1942 transports of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto left for the extermination camp at Treblinka. Everyday 5,000 to 7,000 people were sent to their deaths. A monument was built here in 1988. As the inscription on the monument informs us: 'Over 300,000 Jews followed this path of suffering and death between 1940-1943 from the Ghetto created in Warsaw to the Nazi death camps'. Four hundred and forty-eight first names, from Abel to Żanna, were engraved in the wall as a symbol of the 450 000 Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto
We walked to the Mila 18 memorial where Jewish resistance fighters died fighting Nazis. A number of resistance fighters in the bunker committed mass suicide rather than surrender.
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Monument to the Ghetto Heroes |
We walk to the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, which is across from the modern museum of the history of the Polish Jews. Outside of the Museum is a statue of Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of Germany, who in 1970 knelt in pensive apology in front of Warsaw’s Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. After the walking tour we attempt to go to the Jewish cemetery, which unfortunately is closed.
It's been a full day, so we head back to the hotel and then dinner at the Radio City Cafe, which is in the former Radio Free Europe building. Lots of pictures on the wall of that era.
November 9 - Third day in Warsaw
We have only a few hours before we need to leave for Minsk so we head out to the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising (which was in 1944). The museum is overwhelming, with so much information about the occupation of the Nazis from 1939 to 1944, the atrocities, the cruelty, and the resistance movement which was crushed by the Nazis. It is impossible to see everything in the 2 hours we had.
It is pouring when we leave and with some difficulty and the kindness of strangers we make it back to the hotel via the Metro. We use the hotel's driver (the only person of color that we have seen in Warsaw-- he is from Ghana). At the airport we meet some people from Waukesha (the Aaron Rogers jersey gave him away). We are on Lot Airlines and on our way to Belarus.
