Poland was so amazing. I don't think I would've ever really thought to go to Poland, were it not for being in Austria or even really the fact that the school planned the trip.
We drove through the night and arrived in the morning in Czestochowa. Our Lady of Czestochowa is especially dear to Illuminata Pace, so it was really great to see the image. It was the first of many examples of the great faith the people of Poland have.
This web site gives a good background about her : http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html
One way they venerate her is by going behind the wall on which she hangs and kneeling there, kind of like a wailing wall of sorts. There was a museum also which has St. Theresa's First communion veil. Some prisoners in the concentration camps would save pieces of their bread and make rosaries out of them - they were saved in this chapel.
Then we went to Auschwitz - Birkenau. I think I should write about this at some other time, if that time presents itself. There are so many thoughts and emotions that came from being in such a place. It is shocking how we can so easily choose the wrong thing, which can then turn into something that we had never even imagined, but have then taken it on and accepted it fully.
It made me think about freedom and how it is so easily abused and misunderstood. We do have such a responsibility to our brothers and sisters, to all of them.
Who am i to walk on the ground where martyrs died? i am no one to. just being there - without any words from the tour guide - the presence there spoke more than words can express.
in every action we determine ourselves - the prisoners and the guards.
I kept thinking how heinous the crimes were against life - so unimaginable. yet, one can judge me on this, the guards were people too, who were not corrupt soulless shades of people from birth but became that way through various decisions and choices. It made me think of how Frankl said that we might be good now, but we’re not guaranteed to be good forever. In fact he told a story about a horrible doctor from Vienna who did many experiments and cruelties on people. After the war, he went to prison and Frankl learned from an acquaintance how the doctor had completely changed, for the good, how he gave other’s hope in prison and encouraged others.
We went into buildings that prisoners built themselves. There were rooms with objects.
Shoes.
Combs.
Suitcases.
Many of the suitcases had birthdays on them. So many children who only saw the world for a short time and only from inside the concentration camp.
There are parts of this that I can’t explain at all, or do not want to because it’s almost as if writing it here makes it ... less of a gravity than it is.
In the basement of one of the barracks was the cell were St. Maximillian Kolbe spent his last weeks. On the door of another cell was carved the Immaculate Heart and Christ’s face. How was Christ there, in the concentration camps? mercy. mercy.
Actually i think that is all i want to say, here, now, about this, even though a lot more was seen and happened. One of the professors said that if you squeeze a handful of polish soil, out will come the blood of martyrs.
Appropriately, we went to the shrine of divine mercy the next day.
I was not particularly looking forward to it, but once I was there, I was so at peace.
There was a wonderfully sweet chapel with the Merciful Jesus image, but the church there looked ... like a spaceship. also, i thought that the churches in europe were not heated because they were all so old, but no, even this church was freezing.
I just loved being in Krakow, especially because I felt so much closer to John Paul II. Praying in the back of a Franciscan church, in the same spot where he used to pray was probably my favorite. Everyone stressed so much how he completely changed Poland. I saw where he lived, where he was bishop, where he would wave out of windows. Our tour guide said how at the last time he came to Krakow, they were ‘packed like sardines in the park’ to see him ;)
In the square, every hour a trumpeter comes out and plays a tune - but stops halfway (because a trumpeter was warning the city of invaders, but was shot by an arrow halfway through). All the trumpeters are firefighters, all the firefighters are trumpeters. I love little random things like this that are in different cities.
We went ice skating one night - it was outside and there was about 2 inches of snow on the rink. The ice skates were weird too, like roller blades but with blades on the bottom - ok so maybe that’s what hockey skates are ...
On Sunday we went to Wadowice, where John Paul II was born. The apartment where he grew up is normally open every day of the year. Except for the day we went apparently. Still, what a nice courtyard haha. Right next door was the towns church, where John Paul II would say, “where it all started”. So cute, right? Anyway, Poland was so beautiful and I loved it.