First stop on our travels was the town of Gura Kalwaria, a town dating from the 1300's and home of Ger Hassidism. Before WW II, 30,000 Jews lived in Gur, less than half of whom were Hassid's. Of those 30,000, only 30 survived the Nazis. We met with Feliks Karpman, one of those 30 survivors, and now an 86 year old man. Only one other survivor is still alive and living in Gur and he is 97. Mr. Karpman told us his harrowing tale of being taken to Treblinka, escaping by killing a Ukranian guard, being taken to the Warsaw Ghetto, then sent to a forced labor camp, escaping again, and joining the Polish Partisans in the forest near Warsaw. I'm not sure I have the entire story correct, since it was told to us through an interpreter, but there were ghettos, camps, partisans, death, fighting, and the loss of his entire family except for one brother. He is the caretaker of the only remaining remnant of Judaism in Gura, a study hall/house of prayer that was built in 1859 as a library, with the house of prayer attached in 1903. When he dies, there will be no one to take care of it.
Mr. Karpman:
Our study session with Haim in the Study Hall:
Mr. Karpman took us to the Jewish cemetery in Gura - the pictures speak for themselves. I felt an obligation to insure that these graves are remembered, if only for the few minutes that this page is read.
Finally, Mr. Karpman's family grave. Although he had no bodies to bury after losing his family in the Crematoria, he went to the site and took some ashes and buried them in this grave.
I know I've dwelled on this cemetery far too long, but although it is sad, it deeply moved me on many levels.
After Gur, we went to Praga, where Jews have lived since the 1600's. Across the river from Warsaw, Praga was originally the center of Jewish life in Poland. After a quick lunch we walked through parts of Warsaw, within what had been the wall of the Ghetto and drove around the outskirts to get the size of the Ghetto. Of course, the vast majority of the Ghetto was razed by the Nazis, so little remains except boundary markers along the sidewalks.
Other parts of the day made less of an impression, both because of the lack of a physical building or synagogue, but also because I became testy and combative with our Polish guide, Basha. It was not a good afternoon for me. I felt the surface story was being told, not the ugly, horrific one that actually happened.
The entire story of Poland, the Jews of Poland, and World War II is a very, very complicated story. And there are many versions of the story - each valid in its own way. Poland suffered terribly under the Nazis who treated the Poles as sub-human. Only the Jews were considered of lower status - vermin in the eyes of the Nazis. Approximately 2.8 million non-Jewish Poles died in the period 1939-1945, about 16% of the population, which is a terrible, terrible tragedy. But I can't forget that about 2.9 million Jewish Poles died in the same time period. This is 90% of the Jewish population of Poland. Although deprivation, starvation, and hardship existed for non-Jewish Poles throughout Warsaw, I didn't feel our guide filled in the facts about how much worse conditions were for the Jews inside the Warsaw Ghetto. I guess I selfishly want to concentrate on my story. It is good that I'm being forced to hear and deal with a more universal story.
I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Tomorrow we visit Treblinka.
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