RelativaTree

A normal, average, run of the mill pleasant spring day. An abnormal abhorrent place. In all the books I’ve read, all the movies I’ve seen, all the classes I’ve taught about the blight in human history called Shoah, nothing could have ever prepared me for the enormity of Birkenau. For the horror I felt passing under those infamous gates. I have nothing to say that hasn’t been said, no more tears to add to those already shed. The only thoughts I can think are those already expressed – primarily Santayana’s ‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” and those of Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Last year on a very rainy day we stopped for a few hours in Przemyśl – this was during that madcap 22 day research trip. By the time we got to Przemyśl we were all exhausted and hungry and we just wanted to eat and get to our next hotel (I don’t remember where that next stop was). I was captivated by this city with all the churches, and eagerly awaited an opportunity to return.  We were in Jawornik Polski and were told in the office of the civil archives that the records we wanted would be in Przemyśl so Marek, our client and I took off for Przemyśl.

Of course, the weather was still rainy.  It has rained every day since we got here. The grass is green, the flowers beautiful, and there is nothing to beat slipping and sliding on cobblestones or cemeteries. I’m really ready for some sun.

Przemyśl really is a beautiful city. Our hotel however, felt like it was in old Ukraine, not Poland. Not at all pleasant. On the positive side, it was clean and the internet worked. The food was definitely on the bad side of acceptable and even the coffee at breakfast was bad. It’s difficult to describe why I felt like it was Ukraine, except that the only other times I’ve stayed in places like this was last year in Kovel, and previously in Zhitomir.  The three places were interchangeable.

We headed off yesterday morning for the cathedral where their archives should hold the records for which we are searching.

The priest and nun that we met with were very nice and helpful and even tried to communicate in English as much as possible.  Marek of course carried the conversation since he was the only one among us who spoke Polish.  We were not allowed near the record books but a researcher in the reading room did the searches and provided images of the records – not the whole page just the section of the page he was allowed to give us. We appreciated all the help, it’s just sort of difficult to comprehend the harm in sharing copies of records that are well over 100 years old – in some cases close to 150 years old.

That was yesterday, an uneventful day except for the research in the archives which was very exciting. Today, Marek went off to another archive to do research while J and I toured various parts of the city – Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches, catacombs, a thousand year old castle and more. We managed to be inside whenever it rained, which was a welcome change.

My experience with churches could be labeled as minimal and that would probably give me too much credit, so this was fascinating.  The castle was truly wonderful – not the largest castle, nor the most ornate, but wonderful.

The castle is at the highest point of the city so the views were spectacular.

After a pretty discouraging dinner last night at the hotel, we went back to town for dinner at the amazing Cuda Wianka. I had what was called a “Bowl” – it was felafel, hummus, salad, sweet potatoes. We decided on ice cream for dessert and went in search of it. The ice cream shops were closed but the coffee shops were still open and we found one with gorgeous cakes AND ice cream. I settled on a piece of szarlotka – a wonderful pastry wit thin sliced apples, and refusing to forego ice cream, topped it with chocolate. Yum.

Tomorrow, back to Jawornik Polski and the surrounding area – on schedule visiting the civil records office to clarify a date, Greek Catholic parish offices, Roman Catholic cemetery behind the civil records office and more.

We started on our travels from Krakow in the sun.  Thankfully it wasn’t too hot in the car although I did quickly learn to regulate the a/c and fan. The navigation system confounded us so we used our own GPS on the phone.  If you’re like me, and pour over maps, read about the history of Eastern Europe and look at people’s surnames and the places their families came from, you’ll understand the thrill I feel as we pass by towns which previously were only names.  Now, I need to figure out how to say them!

Łańcut – say it like Wine-sut. Really.

As I did last summer, I found myself fascinated by the buildings along the roadside, the stone walls, wells, and travelers’ chapels to say nothing of the colors of the houses and the uniquely shaped churches.

Of course, this spring, the rain didn’t hold off for an entire day. There were bursts of thunder, downpours and then what looked like clearing, but of course was just a momentary distraction.

We headed for the office of civil records in Jawornik Polski (the second name distinguished it from all the other towns named Jawornik) to do some research, and immediately couldn’t find the building with the archives. Thank goodness for helpful people on the street and for Marek’s ability to communicate with them in Polish. Finally, the elusive building was found – we were pretty much right outside of it!

I am so grateful for helpful archivists, people who understand the holes in ourselves when we search for our families, and who are willing to help us not only fill those holes with documents but who lend a hand to give us information that contextualizes those documents and thus, expands our knowledge of ourselves by connecting us to the past.

Speaking of the past. It’s so easy to look at an old building that needs repair and just see its age and how uninhabitable it looks. Here, the buildings are older than most of us can conceive of and no matter what condition they are in, most of the time, there appear to be people taking some care of them, sometimes even inhabiting them.

What would a day of research be without a trip to one or even two cemeteries? In this case, we visited a Greek Catholic cemetery and a Roman Catholic one.  Both seemed to still be in use, and old gravestones appear to be in the process of being replaced.

The storms descended upon us again, and muddy shoes and all we headed back to the car to continue on to Rzeszów for the night.  Our hotel was the Bristol and it’s going to be a great night!  We’ll be back there for another night later this week when we’ll spend some time there doing research, rather than just a night in between Jawornik Polski and Przemyśl .  We just finished dinner and look at the desserts we each absolutely had to have!  BTW, for those of you who drink, if you’re ever there, they make a really mean Cosmo!

Today, Saturday, was short and perfect! As planned, Marek and I met up around time to go to the airport to pick up J. As planned, we arrived at the airport early.  OK, so no one gets to an airport as early as we did. What we anticipated taking 45 minutes and getting us there 15-30 minutes earlier than we needed to be, actually took 15 minutes.  Then, because I was making sure that everything was done in a timely manner, I had put her arrival time on my calendar as 30 minutes than it was really supposed to be. Like I said, no one gets to the airport as early as we did intentionally.  Our client’s flight was on time, and the drive back to Krakow was uneventful.  We had checked out her room in advance and turned on the a/c so we knew that everything on that end was ready for her.

We had made reservations for 3 PM at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. The restaurant was completely booked after that time, and we figured (and were right) that a nice, leisurely meal and then off to bed would be perfect for a weary traveler.

As we left the restaurant, we were treated to a cacophony of sounds and we looked out the exit onto a street filled with revelers carrying rainbow umbrellas and flags!  A Pride Parade!  Perfect.  BTW, if you are going to be in Salt Lake City on 2 June 2019, please join me and the Ancestry.com team at the Utah Pride Parade!

I thought I would get to sleep early but the last few days really crept up on me and I went for a long walk (lots of things were open very late) and headed back to the market square and the craft show that will remain in town through next weekend. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

There’s nothing like not permitting exhaustion hold you back from exploring. After all, it’s only sleep or the lack of it. However, on Friday, the Krakow archive was only open from 9 AM – 1 PM and we had things to do. So, bright and early we headed out to the archives which turned out to be located very close to our hotel.  Last year, we had about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, this year it was perhaps 5 minutes.

We arrived just before the reading room doors opened, and were among the first to secure spaces at the tables.  Marek made sure to get our paperwork processed quickly and we strategized, deciding to look at the indexes to the birth, marriages and deaths first, and to tackle to population lists afterwards.  We managed to get through the marriage indexes and to look through the books of marriage records, taking pictures of the pages we needed, and to get thorough the death indexes. We’ll have to get the death books when we return to Krakow at the end of May.  Four hours passed amazingly quickly.

As we headed out of the archives, we were stopped by a man who urgently needed to speak with us.  He must have overheard our conversation in the archives – he was from Rzeszow and is a professor who specialized in the history of the Jews.  I asked him if he was Jewish, and told me that his mother always insisted that he not be.  His mother was Jewish and his father was not.  We talked for quite a while, and then all went to lunch.  He insisted that we eat at a Ukrainian restaurant – Smak Ukrainski.

Lunch was delicious. I had a pancake with potatoes and cabbage – it was more like a knish than a pancake, but it was wonderful. The conversation was great – we had an opportunity to find out lots of details we didn’t already know about some of the very small towns we will be driving through, and we will probably stop (which we hadn’t originally planned to do) to see some of these sights.

Marek and I headed off to Kazimierz to take photos of the buildings in which a client’s ancestral family lived prior to immigration. We had dates from 1910-1944 from population lists and death records. We found 4 of the 6 buildings, the last ones are in Krakow.  We walked over 16,00 steps and decided enough was enough.  Unfortunately, Marek and I love what we do and when we returned to the hotel, we sat down to quickly go over a few small details, and at 10 PM, we realized how late it was and that we were hungry (no dinner). We found a shop that sells pastry and  settled on freshly made waffles and ice cream.  Terrific meal!

I am however, looking forward to eating at a kosher restaurant in Kazimierz on Sunday night.

Last summer, Lina really wanted to go on a carriage ride in Krakow.When I saw a horse and carriage come by, I had to take a photo for her!

Now, catching up on some of the sleep I’ve been missing for the last few days seems to be imperative!

As the bard said all’s well that ends well.  We boarded the plane in Salt Lake City, after having to do what neither of us anticipated to do at arrival. Checked luggage was fine – mine was way underweight, but my carry-on stuff had to be redistributed because I was told it was too heavy. Marek had to check a bag not just take a carry-one for the same reason. At check-in, the very nice but insistent person told us that the bags would be weighed before boarding the plane. Of course they were not.

We boarded the plane, and just as we expected it to take off, the pilot announced it would be delayed – the amount of fuel they had loaded was about 300 liters (I think he said liters) was too little and the people who do that sort of thing needed to come back and actually put in sufficient fuel for us to arrive at our destination.

We had less than an hour to make a connecting flight in Amsterdam, so this was a little concerning – there would be a rather large airport to rush through and passport control, but of course it was out of our control. So, we sat back to wait, because of course, there was nothing else we could do.

We arrived in Krakow safely after an uneventful flight and found that the flight we were to take had a delayed departure of about 25 minutes, and although there was a long line at passport control with only two windows open, we got to the gate just as boarding had begun.

Tired and  hungry, we got to Krakow and to our delight, saw sun outside! The weather forecast had prepared us for rain, clouds, thunderstorms and more of the same for the next week.

We arrived at our hotel. We had hoped that this hotel, the Hotel Wawel, situated close to Kazimierz, Krakow’s historic Jewish quarter would prove to be as charming as what we saw online – the hotel we stayed at last year, the Polski, didn’t have openings.  A short drive up a cobblestoned street, and we arrived at our destination.  The staff was wonderful the hotel is charming, and their recommendation for dinner – right on the main street, Miod Malina, was wonderful.  I had halibut over black beans, and kopytka which is a potato dumpling similar to gnocchi; and Marek had potato pancakes with goulash.  Ice cream of course followed when we walked through the streets of Krakow. The pistachio was less than supreme but the chocolate I chose (72%) was wonderful.  Who knew – the chocolate ice cream, like bars of chocolate comes in different percentages.

Tomorrow morning we are off to the archives.