Pilgrimage to Poland - Part 8

The City of Warsaw was ravaged in WWII by the Nazis, who destroyed close to 95 percent of all its buildings including museums, historical landmarks, churches, and of course synagogues. The Warsaw Ghetto in which the Jews courageously fought the Nazis was reduced to rubble.

Once liberated from Soviet domination, having prospered economically from European Union membership and increased national security under the umbrella of NATO, Poland undertook a major rebuilding of its war-torn country.

As our tour bus entered the city at dusk we were met by a modern city with gleaming skyscrapers, wide boulevards, upscale shops and restaurants, and well-dressed patrons who clearly were enjoying contemporary success.

Today, all of its historical landmarks, museums and churches have been restored. Not so its synagogues or Jewish institutions. What was left of Jewish life in Poland is now found in museums and placards on newly constructed buildings where Jewish structures and synagogues once stood.

Pre-Holocaust Poland had a Jewish population of more than 3,400,000 Jews; almost 400,000 of whom called Warsaw home. After the War the Jewish population including some returning Polish Jews numbered no more than 180,000. Unfortunately, the defeat of Nazi Germany did not end the persecution and slaughter of Jews in Poland.

At the end of the war, surviving Jews who returned to their villages and sought to reclaim their homes and other property were murdered by locals. The 1946 Kielce massacre of Jews in a frenzy of Jew hatred ultimately killed hundreds of Jews, and the antisemitic/anti-Zionist policies of the Soviet dominated Polish government resulted in the social, political and economic isolation of Jews, who were denied employment, and discriminated in every aspect of life.

Returning Jews, who thought they could pick up the pieces of a once thriving Jewish community came to the realization that there was no future for Jews in Poland. As a result, between 1946 and the decades that followed more than three quarters of the remaining Jews in Poland emigrated leaving approximately 50,000 Jews in all of Poland, most of whom remained in Warsaw or assimilated into the local population.

Combined with Poland’s persistent avoidance of any responsibility for

Holocaust involvement, and its suppression of discussion concerning Polish guilt in the Holocaust, along with its continuing antisemitic tendencies, explains the scarcity of Jewish life or remembrance of the great contributions made by Polish Jews over a 1,000-year history to Polish society.

After checking into our hotel, I had a delicious dinner of pirogies and other delicacies in a local restaurant with a delightful extended family in our group, who took me under their wing as the week’s activities started to wear me down.

After a restful night’s sleep followed by a buffet breakfast in our hotel, we began our tour at the Jewish Historical Society Museum.

The building in which the museum is currently housed has an interesting history dating back to the formation of the Main Jewish Library in 1880 as an adjunct to the Great Synagogue of Warsaw which itself was built and dedicated on Rosh Hashanah in Sept. 1878.

When it opened, the Great Synagogue of Warsaw was considered as described in one source as “one of the most magnificent Polish buildings erected in the 19th century.” Tragically, in 1943, after razing the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto, the synagogue, which was being used as a storage area by the Nazis for stolen Jewish property, was also blown up to emphasize the utter defeat of the Jews.

In 1928 the Main Jewish Library had moved to its current location across the street from the Great Synagogue, While the building survived the war, its contents numbering approximately 70,000 volumes of Jewish literary material were looted, lost or destroyed by the Nazis. The building now houses the Jewish Historical Society Museum which took occupancy of the building in 1951.

Within the museum are displayed letters and narratives written by Jewish prisoners and slave laborers, most of whom did not survive, which give readers a first person glimpse of the life and dreadful horrors the Jews faced during the Holocaust. Some of the letters and narratives even wrote optimistically of the end of the Nazi regime in the face of their imminent death.

The Jewish spirit of hope and faith in humanity never left them; and while they are gone, that spirit endures in the Jewish people and has, and always will be one of the pillars of Jewish survival.

To be continued …

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.