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I will write about our first 2 days in Poland at another time but I want to share about today because today we were in Sosnowiec. It is a city I've heard about many times over the years. My father's family moved here in 1935 and the other day we were on the street where they lived, but today we were at the spot where their lives changed forever. On August 12th 1943, the Germans rounded up all the Jews of Sosnowiec in a large fenced in sports field. I didn't hear many stories of the Holocaust from my father but what happened that day and the next few days is one I know well. And we were at the sports platz this morning. We participated in a ceremony at the monument commemorating the 26000 Jews of Sosnowiec, the vast majority of which died in Auschwitz. The ceremony was attended by members of the local government and by a person who survived this place. He was 7 years old at the time and he spoke about his experience. It was an emotional moment for us. Here is where the Selection took place and from where my grandparents were sent to Auschwitz
and to their death. Hard to believe we're looking at the field where all this happened and 74 years later soccer games are played.
From there we went to the Jewish cemetery of Sosnowiec, the 5th cemetery we've been to in the last 3 days. It was better maintained than the others we've been to it but it has only a small % of the gravestones that were originally there. The others were taken by local people to use as building material. Along one wall of the cemetery were many gravestones recently found and removed from a local bakery where they made up the flooring.
Our last stop was at the monument for the Srodula ghetto. Nothing is left of the place where the Jews that survived the round ups, including my father and his 4 sisters, were forced to live and work until they were arrested or taken to forced labor or concentration camps.
I'm so grateful to the people, most of them connected to this Zaglembie group we're traveling with that have created the monuments and plaques that at least mark the places and keep them from being totally forgotten.
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Billy Smith
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What a trip
Marilyn...What an amazing trip to be able to take. I can't even imagine the emotions and excitement over seeing some of these places. I hope things continue to go smoothly and I hope we get a chance to talk about it when you get home. I have always wanted to get my certification in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and be able to see first hand what the camps were like. Truly unbelievable I am sure.