After our wild trip with details in the previous post, we arrived safely in Poland and even though we missed our dinner with our hosts, we did grab a taxi and took a quick look at the city that was 80% destroyed in World War II. They have done an amazing job of restoring buildings from the rubble with old pictures.
Today even after being invaded and plundered by the Swedes, the Russians (several times). the Prussians and being being totally eradicated from the map in 1795, they have somehow survived, not without much more persecution. During World War (( 6 million Poles were killed and 2.5 mission were deported to labor camps. All but about 100,000 of the 3 million Jews who lived in Poland died in the concentration camps. Today Poland is 90% Catholic with a small smathering of Jews.The majority never returned. After all that “tossing around” by other countires and still a satellite of the Soviet Union, in 1980-83 the Solidarity Labor Movement led by Lech Walesa led the country to independence.
We were here about ten years ago and it was amazing to see how much the country has progressed under free enterprise. Warsaw is absolutely beautiful!
THE BRAND NEW SOCCER STADIUM WHICH IS THE SITE OF THE EUROPEAN CUP SOCCER MATCH ON JUNE 8TH!
AMBER JEWLRY GALORE
WINDOWS CRAMMED WITH “STUFF”!
SERENDIPITY DINNER!
THE PRESIDENT’S PALACE
CHOPIN….ONE OF THE GREAT HEROS OF POLAND!
We had a great time with the our Poland group of Presidents! We had 2 1/2 hours with them in the morning to talk about The Entitlement Trap and 2 hours in the afternoon to talk about Lifebalance. They were a terrific group who are working hard to become better parents along with running Poland and lot of the world. So interesting to learn from!
John, the Chapter President and Kasia his wife, came all the way from Krakow and invited us to join them for a tour when we come back in May. Such delightful people!
Our hosts were so fun too. She had the idea to prepare a movie of the five of the families’ kids. She had someone go to their homes and ask questions regarding what we were going to be talking about. The answers were hysterical. Such cute kids!
Some dear new friends (she was a Fulbright Scholar and he went to Tufts and then on to The Kennedy School) took us to a dinner at one of the most amazing restaurants we’ve ever enjoyed. We had traditional Polish food to die for! Forgot to take pictures! So sorry all you Eyrealmers who really look forward to those pictures (JK).
They gave us a delightful tour of the city before dinner complete with a great Polish history lesson. His grandmother was sent to a labor camp during the war (she wasn’t Jewish, just Polish. The Germans didn’t like Poles either) and she ate raw potatoes with some drug which created a fever. Therefore the Germans sent her to a work camp for the sick instead of a concentration camp and her life was saved.
How can we be so lucky?
On to Germany!
3 comments:
Deutschland!
Can't believe we don't get the meal photos from that restaurant! That's our favorite part, and we aren't kidding. Poland seemed pretty amazing... nice write up!
-aja
What a fun post! I found you through your values parenting blog (which I love). My great grandmother was a Polish Jew who was fortunate enough to immigrate to the US with her sister (as very young girls) during WWII. She never saw or heard from her family (parents, many siblings, etc.) again & could only assume the worst. It is fun to read about and see the things there appreciated. Thank you so much for all you do for families!!
And now here we are... her only living posterity & now members of the church working hard to seal her family together (and to us!)... no doubt there are plans for us bigger and greater than we can ever anticipate during the trials of life!
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