Poland-Day 3 Last Day
After driving 5 1/2 hrs. in the morning, we reached Warsaw. It was very cold in Warsaw and windy, what I was originally expecting the weatrher to be like on the whole trip. First we stopped at a Warsaw Ghetto Cemetery which has some newer graves from the early 1900's and a whole section of mass graves because it was the cemetery during WWII. Many people used the border of the ghetto in the cemetery to escape and smuggle food and weapons into the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was set up in 1940 and soon the walls were closed with 450,000 people inside it. In the first year, 100,000 died of hunger and disease because of the horrible conditions. In 1942, 5000 Jews are deported from the ghetto, decided by the Judenraht. 265,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka and killed. In the cemetery, I saw the name of a Jankielewicza, which is my Grandmother's original last name which was exciting!The last part of our tour in Warsaw was about a two hours walk on the resistance and reactions to the war, ghetto, etc... We learned about the underground movement in Warsaw, the Warsaw Uprising, and visited the Rappaport Monument to the Resistance fighters. There we concluded our trip in Europe with Hatikvah once again, and boarded the buses to come home. I never realized how much I love Israel!!
Now, I am home until Tuesday when I leave again for a week!
