treblinka, tykocin, and closing

we left early this morning for a long drive to a small town called tykocin. upon arrival we entered a beautiful synagogue that was not destroyed during the war, but instead used for military storage. much of the things inside the synagogue were destroyed but the building itself was not and it was restored following the war to it's former beauty. we walked through the town and heard the story of tykocin. the tykocin pogrom was the mass murder of approximately 1,700 jews. they were taken to the market square where they were told they would be "resettled" but instead they were taken to the lopuchowo forest. the marched to the forest; men, women, and children, and were executed in waved in to pits by an s.s. firing squad. there were 3 different mass graves with memorials, candles, pebbles, flowers, and words to commemorate those whose lives were innocently and rapidly taken. however, not only where these innocent people shot in to mass graves, they were also made to strip their clothes and stand naked. how humiliating and degrading. this is all part of nazi dehumanization. to die in that manner is a tragic death indeed. as i looked at these sites the mass grave was fenced in and you could tell exactly where it was because the ground was extremely bumpy. i once again, felt sick to my stomach. as we walked both in to the forrest and out (which not many people were able to do) everyone was in complete silence. you could hear birds chirping, the sky was blue. but i took special time to think about the trees, who have stood the test of time and have seen it all. they saw the atrocities committed here and they see me mourn those lost right before their eyes. we boarded the bus and drove for a few hours until we reached treblinka, which is now just a memorial. there are blocks on the ground to symbolize train tracks and then as you turn you see a rock with each different countries name on it. as you approach the main memorial there are thousand and thousands of rocks with different cities written on them, each symbolizing a city effected by the shoah (holocaust). i found the stone for krakow and put a pebble on it. i also put a pebble on the stone for korczak. we debriefed in a circle, boarded the bus, and headed to dinner. after dinner we did our closing ceremony where we sang songs and read poems and thanked the many people who made this trip possible and what it was. i am so thankful to jamie, dr. susan nowak, and professor dobkowski for their leadership and organizing this trip. i thank meghan robinson, beth, richard salter, and bonnie abrahams for their support. i thank president gearan for laughing at my jokes. i thank our tour guides, basha, sharon, and micheal for sharing their wealth of knowledge with us. i thank my fellow marchers for their friendships and their input. however, most importantly, i thank sally and henry for their strength and ability to share their stories with us. there were two things that i was told about this trip that i once did not believe when first told, but have found to be very true. 1) you will laugh as much as you cry (or in my case laugh so hard it makes you cry) and 2) within this week the other students will become like your family, and through that strength i was able to share my story with people that were once strangers to me.
thats all for now, it is late and we have an early flight tomorrow. however, keep an eye out for my posts still in the next few days because i will continue to reflect.
xoxo
jill

synagogue

memorial around mass grave in the forrest

more of memorial

more of memorial

treblinka

some of the countries effected

janusz korczak (who died with his orphans)

treblinka memorial

some of the girls with sally

me and andrew with sally