Forgotten Landscapes: The Importance of Collective Memory

Remembering the events of the Holocaust is a complex task, one that extends way beyond Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between 1941 and 1942, around 1.3 million victims were claimed by Nazi mobile killing units and their auxiliary support groups. Even though this number surpasses the victims of Auschwitz, the history of these mass executions has largely been forgotten until recently. Yahad In Unum, an organization established by Father Patrick Desbois, dedicates its work to uncovering the stories of this complicated past. Since its establishment in 2004, the team members of Yahad In Unum have recovered data concerning 2,133 execution sites and recorded over 5,298 testimonies, spanning 8 different countries. Our group had the incredible and unique opportunity to work with a team from Yahad In Unum to see several mass execution sites and speak with two witnesses.

All of the sites we saw, to include two Jewish cemeteries, are desolate and forgotten, but on an entirely different level of isolation from that of sites like Treblinka or Chelmno. Like most Jewish cemeteries of the pre-war era, the two we visited had been destroyed by the Nazis during the war and are now in disarray. Many of the headstones were removed and used to pave the roads during Nazi occupation, and those that were returned afterwards are either inaccurately placed or simply piled up in a corner of the cemetery. There is no Jewish community left in either town we visited, so it is hard for the memory of these sites to be respected or observed.

However, the memory of these sites is not completely forgotten, as there are still some witnesses left to share what life was like before and during the war in these isolated towns. Yahad In Unum works tirelessly to ensure that the stories of these witnesses are documented and added to the history of the Holocaust. We were able to observe their team conduct interviews with two witnesses, getting briefed on how to formulate questions to get factual information and on the importance of keeping your bearing in the face of blunt recollections of tragedy. One of the witnesses, Janvakivsz P., spoke with us about his experience during the war when he was only 12 years old. Even at the age of 89, he was animated and lively, eager to share his story. We were able to hear his story about how he and his mother hid two Jewish men in a cellar under their kitchen. After pealing up the floorboards in his kitchen to reveal that same space, he explained how he had helped provide the hidden men with water and kept a look-out for German patrols at night. Climbing into the cellar myself was one of the most profound experiences I have ever had. Being crunched up in a less than 4 foot tall cellar helped me realize the importance of collecting interviews and story’s like Janvakivsz’, which help add powerful unique and personal stories to the general narrative of the Holocaust.

We then followed Janvakivsz to a Jewish cemetery nearby where he had been witness to an execution. As a young boy, he climbed the back wall of the cemetery to see what was going. He explained to us how the Nazis carried out these actions, detailing how the victims were arranged and shot. Finally, he showed us the train platform where he told us the Jews of his town were taken and then deported to extermination camps in the East (Treblinka). Yahad In Unum’s mission here is so important. We very well may be the last group to get to speak with these witnesses, with their stories being heard for a final time. Each memory shared at these different sites can be corroborated with the known history of the area, and helps piece together blank spots in history.

To add to this already incredible experience, the Yahad In Unum team look us to two mass execution sites in the middle of the forrest. The first one was a barely visible divot in the earth. If you were unaware of the history of that small spot in the woods, there would nothing to indicate that hundreds of people were killed here, where their bodies still remain. The second site was immensely larger. As we passed through the clearing, one of the members of our group softly said, “Oh God.” ‘Oh God’ was right. The pit before me seemed like a clearly visible and painful wound in the earth. Yet, once again, there are no markings, no plaques, no boarders to protect it. Alcohol bottles and plastic littered the site, and a walking path runs straight through it. Over 1.3 million victims of the Holocaust were killed in sites like this one, and the lack of memory present at these wooded sites resembles the lack of memory in the global community. The work of Yahad In Unum to gather and create this collective memory is more important now than ever before. As these witnesses begin to disappear, so will their stories.

The end of a journey, but we’ve made new friends…and we beat Princeton!

Today was our last and maybe our hardest day. I can’t explain enough to the world out there what a hard trip this is. Most people don’t get it. For most people at ODU, it’s one of many classes, and we have lots of hard classes at this university. And students probably don’t realize when they sign up for it how hard a class it is, intellectually, emotionally, and physically! So here are some of the difficulties and delights.

  1. We often walk 10 miles a day. Sometimes it’s very cold and this trip and been cold and rainy. We’ve been drenched and cold. I’m cold by nature…look at my pictures, I have on a down vest, heavy jacket and rain jacket in most of the pictures! I bought new boots (in Krakow with Melonie) when my old ones leaked. My legs ache so much at night that I wake up with leg cramps. I’m in my 5th decade and have to carry on as if it were my 2nd or 3rd decade. I have to push myself sometimes when I’m just so tired, and that mean’s I’m pushing my dear colleague, Tom, and the wonderful students….who can all get put out with my obsession to see as much as possible. No one signed on for Annette’s trek into Poland’s past, but everyone held up mightily We are a hearty bunch! One guide told us that the Princeton students couldn’t make the Warsaw ghetto walk with her; they complained and she had to cut the tour short. Not us, not ODU, we pushed on!
  2. There is always unpleasantness. One of our bus drivers made an antisemitic comment. The students were asleep, and I cut him off quickly. But… Our two African American students felt the pain of racism as well, as people stared at them and there was some unpleasantness.
  3. We had to see and learn things no one ought to have to see and learn. Going to sites of genocide is never easy, but on this trip we saw in particular the desolation of landscapes like Chelmno and the killing sites tied to Holocaust by bullets where Jews were killed in forests and buried in mass graves. The pits moved for three days afterwards, we know. But seeing them now is really difficult. Vegetation grows heavily where bodies are stacked beneath. One learns these things over time, but it’s hard to inculcate. I learned things on this trip with regard to pregnant women that I dare not write about on a blog out of respect for those who suffered horrific deaths.
  4. And then we have the delightful part of study abroad, new relationships and new friendships were made. Karerra Smiley did eventually…smile, and he and Logan became celebrities in Lodz :)! We had amazing guides, Maciek Zabierowski in Krakow, Pawel Sawicki at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Agnieszka Haska in Warsaw, Nina Krol in Warsaw, Lodz and Tomaszow Mazowiecki. And the incredible team of Michal Chojak, Renata Masna, and Hubert Buczak in Lodz, Piotrkow Trybunalski and Tomaszow Mazowiecki was beyond words. Hubert found the witnesses for us to speak with, Michal arranged and directed it all and led us to incredible places, and Renata taught us all the art of the interview in the context of oral history. They were extraordinary.
  5. And now it ends and we head home, exhausted, richer, wiser, and more aware of our responsibilities as human beings.
Renata, Januariusz, Michał, and Hubert
Smiley finally smiles…with Melonie, Logan, Dan, and Kelly

Chilling on the bus (5 hours from Lodz to Krakow on our last day)
Sleep where you can!
Dr. Chapman finding his happy spot in Krakow
These girls helping me find a purse!

Don’t ever assume!

Pierogies and beetroots
Lentil stuffed chicken with roasted vegetables
Cherry soup and potato
Brownie souffle and caramel creme
Sorbet with fruit
Mmm..lunch
Mmm..lunch, again

Many eat with their eyes rather than their stomachs. I am one of those individuals. The presentation of food, along this fourteen day journey, has been extraordinary. From three course meals to grab-and-go, I assure you, Polands cuisine has been delicious.
I have taken pictures of almost, everything I have eaten while traveling Poland. I’m not going to bombard you with copious amounts of food photos (maybe just a couple of extras), so I have decided to pick the ‘best’, ‘not the best’, and ‘don’t ever assume’, meal and dessert’s.
We will start with the ‘not the best’ meal.. Poland is known for their Pierogies. Unfortunately, the meat pierogies as Dr. Chapman expressed, “they are awful. It’s looks/taste like Alpo dog food” and I have to agree, they were the worst, however. The beetroot and onions were fantastic. The ‘best meal’ was the lentil stuffed chicken with roasted vegetables. I don’t think I tasted a bit of it. It was that fantastic!
The reason I added, ‘don’t ever assume’ spot, because I did just that. One night for dinner, Dr. Finley and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Well…the listing on the menu was, “cherry soup and potato. ” I ASSUMED cherry soup as in, cherry tomato soup. That wasn’t the case. It was actually a bowl of cooked cherries, in there juice. It was like eating a cherry pie. Not what I expected for soup.
Now, on to dessert… again, we will start with, ‘not the best’ and this dessert will also fit the ‘don’t ever assume’ too. The goes to the fruit and sorbet dessert. Unfortunately, once the dessert came, it was a fruit cup dumped into a bowl and sherbet placed on top with a mint leaf. That was not what I expected for fruit and sorbet. Finally, my favorite dessert while in Poland … (drum roll please) … the brownie souffle with caramel creme and raspberry and white chocolate shavings. Oh My Goodness.. all I can say is.. Yum!

Serenity

I love nature. I love the peace and the tranquility that nature provides. On this day, a brief rain storm came and went. The birds were singing, and the sun was shining through the trees. The air was calm, and even though it was a small hike, I could just sit and take in the atmosphere. Late 1943, early 1944, that wasn’t the case for many Jews. This place in nature that suppose to be serene and peaceful, was a time of terror. This is the site were many, many Jews marched to their death. The mass graves in Tomasźow Mazowiecki do not have a memorial placed nor is there a commemorate marking. If a person was hiking through nature, taking in all its beauty, would not know this site exists.

Kaddish, an Act of Repairing the World

Certain words, certain phrases, invoke power. In Judaism, the Mourners Kaddish is said not in sadness, but exalting the power of God. We say the Mourners Kaddish to show that despite hurt, we praise God, and affirm our belief in him. This prayer has been recited throughout time, for over 5,000 years. This is a prayer that draws upon voices throughout time, honoring the dead. To be part of and bear witness to Kaddish is a mitzvot, and I think especially in the case where it can be said for those who had no control over their outcomes, violated by a system that designated them as subhuman and treated them with little respect in death, as in life. 

For those who have passed, the Kaddish acts as consolation, especially in the case of souls being ripped from their bodies. The Kaddish, when committed in the memory of others, means that they now live through us, and that we are giving power to them to live out experiences they were otherwise denied. The power of this prayer is that when said in the space of silence, over these sites of mass executions, it’s a mitzvah that contributes to repairing the world, Tikun Olam. 

Into the past.

Today was the most profound teaching experience I’ve ever had, the culmination of years of work, reflection, research, and networking. Today Michał, Renata, and Hubert from Yahad-in Unum led Tom, the students, and I deep into the past. They introduced us to the world of witnesses, children who long ago sat atop trees or perched on walls and watched genocide happen before their eyes, and now as old men these scenes play over and over in their minds. The witnesses guided us to these places to relay what they saw. And so we visited sites in the middle of woods where no one has been for so very long, where horror still hangs in the air and cries, although silent, still ring in one’s ears in these places linked to the Wolborski Forest and to the landscape outside Tomaszow Mazowiecki. Today, at these execution sites, Kaddish was finally said by one of my students. To witness all of this, to hear Elena’s sweet, sweet voice singing the Mourner’s Kaddish while surrounded by my ODU students gave me goose bumps. A long path culminated in that moment with a feeling that we had been quite right to come to Poland to study the Holocaust, we had done something of great importance. In that moment I felt proud of my seven students and their willingness to believe in humanity, even when confronted with the horrific past.

Climbing a wall to watch an execution, 1941-2
With a Witness
Into the Woods

The Responsibility of Collective Memory

In Judaism, there is a tenant called “L’dor Vador” or from generation to generation. This refers specifically to the collective memory of the Jewish people and the responsibility of passing on knowledge. This is done through the sharing of culture, traditions, and memories. 

Yahad-in Unum is an organization that seeks to identify mass execution sites of Jews and Roma orchestrated by the nazis all over Eastern Europe. These acts of genocide that they investigate occur outside of extermination camps, a holocaust by bullets. The mass shootings took place in compressed spaces over short amounts of time. This method of genocide has largely been omitted from the general collective memory that makes up the Holocaust. 

Why have these events been forgotten? Because those who were witnesses could not speak out about what they saw for fear of retribution, because of the occupation of the nazis and later the occupation of the Soviet Union. Yahad works to identify these sites, collect forensic evidence, and conduct witness testimonies. The surviving witnesses are in their late 80’s and 90’s. This means that the opportunity to gather these first-person accounts of history will soon disappear, highlighting the importance of their mission.

Today my class had the privilege to watch the Yahad team conduct interviews. They gave us the opportunity to learn more about these sites by visiting relevant locations with the witnesses and participating in the interview process. By allowing us to bear witness to the experiences of these witnesses, they gave us the opportunity to view evidence of atrocities, charging us as keepers of memory while older generations fade away. There will soon be a time when no one will be left to testify to the horrors of the Holocaust. It’s important to be able to collect and transmit these memories so that they are not lost, so that they can be researched and added to the collective memory of what makes up the Holocaust, shared from generation to generation L’dor Vador.

One of the gentlemen we spoke to witnessed a mass execution in a Jewish cemetery near where he lived when he was around 12 years old. He shared with us the cellar under his kitchen where his mother hid two Jewish men. He saw Jews being moved through town to board the trains east, to Treblinka. These are his recollections. In his minds eye, he can see these events that I and others can barely begin to fathom. Now as he ages, he has instilled this memory, his testimony, in Yahad-in Unum and my class so that we may remember and know that these events were true through his testimony. In a time where there are no more survivors or witnesses of the holocaust, who can educate the deniers? It’s imperative to remain educated on these matters that some are so quick to deny. So I hope that by reading this post, you can also begin to shoulder the responsibility of this memory, and seek to expand your own understanding of these events. 

Why are there no umbrellas???

After spending almost two weeks, traveling the country and seeing some of the most amazing sites, tasting the food and experiencing the culture. The one thing that many of the locals reiterated to the group was that the weather was unusual for May. During this time frame, it rained more days than there was sunshine.
We were only on the trip for a couple of days when my umbrella broke. As in, it completely disintegrated in my hands as I was trying to close it. Unfortunately, I was unable to purchase a new umbrella due to the time. Most shops in Kazimierz close early during the work days and we were leaving, early in the morning for Oświęcim. Once we arrived in Oświęcim, every shop, whether it was clothing or sporting goods, even a primary school supply shop, nobody had umbrellas, and the forecast for the next couple of days at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was rain.
I tell you all this because as we were sitting at a red light, on the bus, and I just happen to look over and notice a corner kiosk. The corner kiosk had almost everything a person would need at the last minute. But, what caught my eye was sitting front and center … barbies. I laughed when I saw the barbies, and all I thought was, ” yeah, can I get a candy bar, water, and oh, I’ll take the barbie in pink too?”

Seeing the Invisible

Rear of memorial at Chelmno

I didn’t like the memorial at Chelmno at first. It seemed forgotten, in disarray, and haphazardly thrown together. Put together by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, and having minimal funding today, it is not well maintained. This makes sense given the strained relations between Russia and Poland, and the obscurity of the site itself. However, the lack of attention given to the site seemed disrespectful to the victims in my eyes. Over 250,000 people died here, in a space that occupies an extremely small space when compared to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the best the government and community could do was to put up an ugly memorial (I’m sorry but it’s true) and allow the rest of it to become overgrown.

But as I started to walk further and further into the site, it hit me. After hearing about the process of extermination at the first section of the camp, and knowing that thousands of victims were burned and destroyed in this small section of this middle-of-nowhere forest, I was unsure of exactly what to expect. The moment we stepped out into the clearing and saw the memorial, I understood why they commemorated the site the way they did. Even more so than Treblinka, this site is open and blank. All that remains are low foundation markers where burn pits and mass graves once were. Standing there, you’re left to attempt to imagine what it would have looked like, what it would have smelled like. The openness of such a space is an exponentially stronger force of emotional dictation than any sign or exhibit.

I always find sites like this, Treblinka, and even Birkenau, much more powerful than the manufactured found at Auschwitz I. Nature plays a powerful role in sites of commemoration. Plants begin to overtake stone foundations, weather and rain wear away at stone monuments, and the site itself is full of life with the wild creatures that call it home. One of the more impactful moments occurred when I felt compelled to snap a picture of a Poppy growing in the distance, right next to what once was a mass grave. When I lowered my camera, a friend leaned in and asked if I knew why that flower is interesting. She explained that the poppy flower is a symbol of death, sleep and remembrance. This lonely flower is suddenly able to add new levels of meaning and symbolism to my experience in Chelmno. Simple occurrences of nature such as this single Poppy have the opportunity to provoke emotions in visitors at random because they are not placed there with a purpose. They are not arranged by museum staff, nor donated by foundations or organizations. They are simply messages from nature that we are left free to interpret as we visit these sites and ponder the memory they attempt to preserve.

It Can’t Be Beautiful

Birds are singing. The sky is blue. The grass is green. The trees are rustling in the wind. The sun is warm. A recipe for a beautiful day. But this place can’t be beautiful. A place of death and suffering, where so many people lost their lives in such a violent manner is incapable of being beautiful. This is an important thing to remember at places of Holocaust memory.

Treblinka, an extermination camp located just 100km (60 miles) away from the city of Warsaw, was an incredibly vile and brutal place. Through its operation from July 1942 to October 1943, it claimed the lives of 700,000- 900,000 people, mostly Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. The commemoration of the site today is not captured in museum exhibits and guided experiences like the ones that can be found at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, visiting Treblinka requires one to see the invisible more than any other site I have encountered. There are no markers of where things once stood. Instead, there are hundreds of stones placed to remember the different cities and countries from which the victims originated.

At the end of the war, the Nazis had been working to destroy all traces of their crimes, and Treblinka was no exception. The camp was completely destroyed, and today the site itself is left alone. The memorials that have been established are left to the will and whims of nature, with only the grass being trimmed in certain areas. The openness of the site and the absence of what once was allows visitors to process the history of what happened there at their own mental and emotional levels. There is nothing to direct your path, nothing to tell you how to feel. Yet the site of Treblinka, a site responsible for almost the same number of deaths as Auschwitz, receives only a fraction of the tourism and attention as the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Perhaps it is because the Nazis chose a place far off the beaten path that the site still today is still not in the realm of public visibility. There are other arguments that suggest the global community is less concerned with extermination sites that murdered predominantly Eastern Europeans rather than Western Europeans. Regardless of the reason, Treblinka is far less known than Birkenau, and this disconnect in memory can be detrimental to the history of the Holocaust.