2011...

Enough of these sad posts.  We have so much to live for...

Just watched this Yahoo! video about the Most Inspiring Moments of 2011, and I think it speaks for itself.

XO

The Best for Last and All the Rest

Names of victims on the wall of the
Budapest Holocaust Memorial

As this experience comes to an end, I find that the Justice Studies program keeps packing the punches, down to the final seconds.  Today marked the beginning of the end: our last field studies trip.  A sad day in that of itself was concurrently on the day of one of our most emotional trips.  Today, we visited the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center.  This memorial was an example of curatorial perfection.  Whoever designed the museum went out of their way to highlight the most valuable information showing the (non-chronological) steps towards deprivation for the Hungarian Jewry.  It was dark and the music matched the scenes well, the videos exceeded in providing emotional reaction, and the pictures on the walls were meaningful and complimented by concise descriptions. 

One of the first things we saw in the museum...
"march to deprivation"

I’m going to be unconventional and start this blog with something that our amazing tour guide talked about at the end of the experience.  She ended our tour by opening up the scope of her narrative.  In learning about the Holocaust we must not limit ourselves to learning about the Holocaust itself.  In looking at the grand scheme of things, we must see the danger in ideas.  Granted, most ideas and ideologies are not so extreme, but there is always potential for these dangerous ideologies to spread.  Looking back, it’s easy to say, “How did we let that happen?”  But as humans we are prone to being herded like sheep towards certain beliefs.  Even remaining neutral isn’t acceptable, it’s important to take a stand.  (This is something I thought was relevant, especially considering the people standing up for their beliefs in regards to the Occupy [insert name of city here] for the past couple months.)  Thinking about this, after moving through the museum and seeing how gradual and “organic” the deprivation of the rights of the Jews happened, I am not surprised that it was possible to instill such an ideology into people. 

Many of the pictures in the Memorial came
from the Auschwitz album - a series of pictures
taken by SS officers and found by an Auschwitz
survivor...More people should see these.

Walking through the Holocaust Memorial brought all of our studies from this semester to a head.  I recognize people and events from our Hungarian History and Hungarian Culture classes.  This is something I’m proud to be able to do.  Having been here, I’ve interacted with people who’ve clearly been impacted by the extremist regimes whose legacy lives on in Hungary.  When you see all the visual evidence, their point of view is frighteningly legitimate.  I will always be haunted by my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which has since been a valuable experience for me to see how what I learned in Poland directly relates to the Hungarian experience.  In this Holocaust memorial, I saw many of the same images and videos that I’ve previously seen, but there was one video that was truly, truly horrific.  I think that more than anything, seeing the bodies of the victims—both alive and dead, and seeing the empty look in their eyes—will remain with me.  It’s something that has become an extremely personal experience since I’ve been over here.  It’s easy to separate yourself from things like this in America, because we are isolated and had not experienced this in first person. 

Beautiful and restored synagogue

This Holocaust memorial is not somewhere that really changed me, because I’ve seen so many Holocaust related things since I’ve been in Europe.  But it is a place that people should have the opportunity to go to.  To see an interpretation of the Holocaust through the eyes of a European nation is powerful, because there was no escaping World War II. 

Powerful and depressing though…which is why it is always refreshing to come to the end of the tour where museums try to make sense of it all and end on a more positive note.  Our tour took us into a synagogue that was completely restored after the war.  Only one picture had remained of the interior, and this picture was used to restore the dignity of the interior to its original state.  The results were beautiful.  To me, it really symbolizes the fact that there is hope after destruction. 

To bring this full circle, what an amazing last field studies trip.  It was the kind that made me take a step back and think about my whole time here.  I could not be more grateful for the opportunities, experiences, knowledge, and friends that I’ve been able to share the last couple months with.  This experience studying abroad has been incredible, and I know that I’m a different person for it.

Above is a video that Sarah posted on her most recent blog post.  It's pretty moving and does a really great job at summing up some of the things that I've seen.

Still,

Living and Learning.

Learning about Judaism in the Great Synagogue.

Inside of the Great Synagogue: looks like a church!

I’ve never really understood the point of view of the Jewish people.  It’s not that I can’t relate to it, but more that I have never known enough about Judaism to really tie the story of their religion and persecution together.  So today, when JSBP went to the Budapest synagogue and Jewish museum, I had a great time and learned a lot. 

To begin our day, we walked into the most beautiful synagogue; I was so surprised by the beautiful décor of the place.  It is the biggest synagogue in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.  It looked a lot like a church, which was odd until our tour guide explained that it was modeled this way so that the Christian majority in Hungary would see the Jewish efforts to assimilate into the Hungarian culture.  The architect used atypical designs and even included an organ into the synagogue.  My favorite piece in the synagogue was a golden sun on the altar that had the Hebrew version of the most sacred name for God.  They don’t ever pronounce this word, only referring to it as “The Name,” because it is so sanctified that they don’t want to dishonor “The Name” by mispronouncing it in any way!  I was so blown away by this, and was impressed at their deep respect for their religion.  In the synagogue, I could not stop thinking about how respectful and rooted in tradition Judaism still is: men wear yarmulkes and women have their heads covered as a sign of respect, the synagogue has hired an organist to play the organ on Saturdays because the Sabbath prohibits observing members from doing work, etc.  I find it beautiful that people still maintain these traditions and customs for so many centuries, especially after the persecution they’ve experienced..

The Tree of Life, beautiful memorial.

We left the synagogue, and walked outside to the Heroes Garden Cemetery, which is located in an unusual place because it is right next to the synagogue, a place for the living, not the dead.  However, the Holocaust brought unusual circumstances for the Jewish (euphemism noted), and 2,300 Jews were killed there, and this grave is a common grave for their bodies.  It was the most that they could do at the time, and I think it’s meaningful to have it there.  I think it functions as a constant reminder to the community and tourists alike, so that we cannot be condemned for forgetting history.  

Raoul Wallenberg: a hero to honor.

We also saw a beautiful memorial, known as the Tree of Life and the Weeping Willow, dedicated to people who never returned home after the Holocaust.  Also in this garden area were memorials to Hungarian Jewish families who offered shelter to fugitive Jews, and more memorials to non-Jewish gentiles who extended this protection in their homes as well.  Most significantly was the memorial to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved over 100,000 Jewish people in Budapest by any means necessary.  His memorial was encompassed by thousands of stones—tokens of gratitude for his bravery and heroic action.  It was definitely moving to see, and learn about in Budapest, where so many people died.  It’s surreal to stand in the very places you see in pictures, pictures from not so long ago.

Pictures of Jews from a
1944 Hungarian newspaper

A memorial that I visited on
the edge of the Danube river.
About 10-15 thousand Jews were killed
at the end of WWII in an especially
cruel manner: forced to strip and take
off their shoes, two people would be tied
together, and one would be shot,
but they would both fall into the river,
the dead weight of one person drowned
the other.

Finally, we went on a tour of the Jewish museum, in which our tour guide taught us about Jewish symbols, Jewish holidays, daily life, and the Holocaust experience.  We saw some beautiful and old Jewish artifacts and torahs, and got more insight into Judaism. I couldn’t stop thinking during the first part of the tour about how much I was learning, despite having grown up with Jewish friends, classmates, and neighbors for my entire life.  We know about the Holocaust, but we don’t know about the religion that was targeted…I guess I never realized the irony in that. 

These realizations were great for me.  This is what I came abroad for.  To be exposed to new experience and ideas.  This was one of the better JSBP trips, and I recommend a visit to the Great Synagogue for any future travelers to Budapest. 

Click here to learn more about the "Jewish Ghosts of Budapest," a great article from which I took this quote:

“The deportation of Hungarian Jews was the fastest and most extensive—437,402 Jews from Hungary deported within 56 days—and one-tenth of the Holocaust’s Jewish victims were Hungarian.”

Hope everyone out there in cyberspace had a great Thanksgiving, and took the time to think about what they have to appreciate.

Live and Learn.

See the Inside of Parliament...Check!

Finally, Finally, Finally: JSBP got to see Parliament.  We’ve been drooling over the exterior of this incredible building for three months, and finally…we got in!  Having seen every angle of the building: from the Buda side, from the edge of the Danube, from the metro stop, etc. I was really excited to see what the inside of Parliament looked like.  It was more extravagant that I could have imagined.  After seeing so many beautiful churches and buildings in Europe, you would think that the “wow” factor would diminish, but every time, I’m more impressed by the detail and attention that goes into building and furnishing these buildings.

Ceiling of the façade, 27 meters high from the inside, 96 meters high on the outside.

The Holy Crown

All the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit into place after living here for three months.  Our tour guide told us that Miksa Roth created the stained glass windows of Parliament.  Roth is a famous Hungarian artist whose home (and now, museum) I visited for an assignment in our Hungarian history class.  We were then led into the dome, in which we saw the Holy Crown, which has been worn by all Hungarian kings.  She told us the history of the crown, a story we had learned about in our Hungarian culture class.  After watching the changing of the guards, which is always an impressive ceremony, our tour guide turned our attention to the statues on the columns of the dome.  She pointed out all of the significant historical figures and I was surprised to find myself doing a mental checklist, saying, “yup, I know that” to myself every time she talked about Árpád, or St. Stephen.  I was proud of myself that I could recognize all these names and understand why they were chosen to be in the façade of the building.

Changing of the guards.

Before the final part of our tour, to see the members of Parliament convening, we were led into the old House of Commons, which is no longer in use.  It was interesting to see the ground-level view of this empty convention area, before being led into the gallery of the almost identical chamber that they currently use.  I’m not sure what I expected when we entered the gallery, but it certainly wasn’t what was below me.  There are about 400 seats in the chamber, but about 25 members were sitting in their seats. Considering that they were scattered all over the room, this number was only diminished further. Looking around at these government 

representatives, I was confused as to why they

 were paying so little attention to the proceedings.  As we sat there, I watched members come in and out at their own leisure, answer phone calls, read the newspaper, chat with the person sitting closest to them, and browse the internet as their fellow representatives spoke.  I have no idea what the proceedings were about—I didn’t recognize a single word of Hungarian, but considering that it is Parliament, it must have some value.  I hope that if I ever see a meeting of Congress, I will be more impressed with their work ethic.  It was a little disconcerting, but certainly one of those things that you have to see at some point.  Maybe that is why people get frustrated with American politicians: they knew what really goes on inside the Capital Building.

Anyway, what a neat experience!  We learned a lot, saw some great rooms and buildings, and learned what it means for a speech to be “worth a Havana,” saw government in action, and saw the Holy Crown!

Woohoo!

After Parliament, Evan and I went over to the Buda side to go to Budapest's best traditional pastry/cake shop, Daubner Cukraszda, where I got not one, but two slices of amazing, amazing cake.  I love European pastries.  Gotta fill up while I can!

Hungary today, Italy tomorrow…and the bitter countdown begins.  There is so much to do before I leave this amazing place, and so little time...

Live and Learn.

Kracking Up with the Girls in Krakow

Obviously my favorite street in Krakow...

"Sar-tney" in Market Square

It may be somewhat redundant at this point, but traveling has opened up a world of knowledge and opportunity that I am so grateful to be exposed to.  This weekend, I reached amazing highs and discovered new lows in Krakow, Poland.  I’ve come to appreciate the spontaneity of traveling to a country with only an idea about what I want to do there.  In this case, I’d researched trips to Auschwitz and the Wielickza salt mine, but knew nothing about Krakow.  Krakow was absolutely incredible and stunningly beautiful.  It was an amazing surprise to get off the bus (after a seven hour trip) and end up in such a lovely place.  All of my expectations were completely surpassed.  One of my close friends, Bridget, is studying there next semester: girl, ya gonna love it.

Shopping in Cloth Hall

One of the best things about Krakow is that everything is generally in walking distance.  With ease, we found our way to the hostel, walking near medieval buildings and through parks covered in fallen leaves.  Our hostel was a great $7/night find.  The best thing about it was that there was an amazing common room that really forced everyone in the hostel to meet and talk, and I really loved some of the hilarious conversations that came out of this.  Since we’d arrived pretty late, we just stayed inside on our first night, and got ready for Saturday.

Saturday came with an early wake up, breakfast, and a cup of coffee.  Our walk to the city center—Market Square, took all of two minutes.  Market Square is a ridiculously huge open space to which all roads in Krakow lead.  It’s a perfect center, and still maintains the integrity of the design that was established during medieval times.  We were drawn to Cloth Hall (souvenirs, jewelry, bags, anything you want…) to shop around for a bit, we encountered the world’s most aggressive pigeons, and were bewildered by the beauty of St. Mary’s Basilica.  At 11, we went on a free walking tour of the city. 

Medieval Wall!

Our tour guide, Jacob, was amazing and so knowledgeable as he brought us from place to place.  We learned about Krakow legends, the layout of the city, the medieval structures that are scattered around the city, saw Oskar Schindler’s home, the place where Pope John Paul II studied and lived, along with the Wawel Castle and the Krakow Dragon.  Krakow is teeming with bits and pieces of Polish history, and its story woven together with determination, strength, luck, and hope among other things. 

"Pretend like you're on fire"...standing in
front of the building where people were
burned at the stake during the Medieval
age...execution was entertainment.

The white/brown building in the center was Oskar Schindler's home:
There are about 7,000 descendants of Schindler's Jews around the world,
the Jewish current population of Poland is about 3,500...
before WWII it was about 3.5 million...

Wawel Castle

For a people whose country that did not exist on a map for 123 years, the Polish are more optimistic than one would imagine.  This may be unique to Krakow, which was saved from much of the WWII devastation that ruined Warsaw and other cities, but I’d imagine there is commonality throughout.  After so much oppression, I imagine the sovereign power that they now wield over themselves must carry much more meaning.  After our amazing history lesson, the girls and I hurried along to catch the bus to Wielckza.

Salt Sculpture of a famous miner legend!

After seeing pictures of Poland’s #1 tourist attraction online, I was convinced that we had to go to see the salt mine.  Because salt is Courtney’s favorite food group (haha!), she was definitely as excited as I was.  We got there just in time for the last English tour of the day.  Our plunge into the ground was made in three phases: first 64 meters down, then to a total of 90 meters underground, before making our final descent, where we were 135 meters into the earth.  The salt mine was started during the 13^th century, with the most primitive tools and low expectations. 

Imagine having your wedding in this church?

Funnily enough, it’s still operating—and what they’ve done with the place is absolutely unreal.  We started entering different shafts and rooms that were elegantly carved.  We saw statues depicting fairytales, kings, gnomes, workers, and even Pope John Paul II all carved out of pure rock salt by common miners.  One of the most impressive works was a replica of The Last Supper—in the wall of the underground church!!  In the St. King’s Chapel, we were reassured that this was a functioning church by the presence of a priest; our tour guide said that they hold large functions there.  It’s strange to be surrounded by salt everywhere, as salt functioned as the floor, the walls, the décor, the light structures, and the stairs…literally everything!  Most beautiful, and my favorite part of the tour were the underground salt lakes.  I really tried to get a good picture of these, and the rest of the mine, but the sketchy lighting prevented that. 

Courtney loved the salt mine...too much

Underground salt lake!

Dinner with our Aussie, Monica!

After the salt mine tour, we went back to our hostel, changed into warmer clothes (traveler beware: Krakow is extremely cold, at all times of the day), and went out with our new Aussie friend, Monica, for some traditional Polish food and a drink!  I was treated to Polish cuisine in diving in face-first to white borscht and a platter of three kinds of pierogis.  We all tried something different and shared all the food: the more variety the better.  Trying the foods of the countries we visit is often one of the most fun parts of these trips.  We went back to the hostel: we had a big day ahead of us.

"Work makes you Free" - truly sadistic.

Waking up early on Sunday paid off in a big way.  It ensured us a place on a tour of Auschwitz.  I considered this a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it sounds odd to say this, but I wanted to see this place.  It’s more than seeing this place that so greatly impacted history, it was about understanding the suffering of a people and coming to terms with the cruelty of humanity.  We were lucky enough to be lead through the Auschwitz museum by an amazing guide, who showed us the ins and outs of the this horrible place.  We were lead around Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau.  I learned so many things when I was there that are extremely hard to swallow; I was left speechless by the experience and even now am coming to terms with how to write about this experience.  I think that as painful as it is, people should see what the Nazi’s did to the innocent Jewish population.  In this case, pictures are worth a thousand or more of my words, so I’ll turn to them to help me explain what I saw.

The memorial commemorating the 1.1 million lives lost at Auschwitz,
the urn contains ashes of the victims.

The Nazis, being extraordinarily sick people,
forced Jews to buy their tickets to the labor and extermination camps.

Prosthetics were taken from the prisoners before the handicapped were killed.

The shoes.  80,000 in this display case, and only a fraction of what was taken from the Jews. 

This is a picture of a 31 year-old woman, taken 4 months after the Soviets liberated the prisoners,
after 4 months of intensive hospital care.  At the time this picture was taken, she weighed 24 kilos,  about 53 pounds.

The Shooting Wall, where thousands of innocent Jews faced the firing squad without any valid reason.

Memorial from inside the gas chamber

Train tracks that brought in prisoners to the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Compared to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz I (shown in the previous pictures) was said to be a "sanitorium"

Death Road.  If the doctor selected you to be in the line going towards this,
you were marching to your death.

Memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Remember.

8 women were expected to share this "bed"

Prisoners were allowed to use the bathroom 2x/day, in scheduled intervals, no exceptsions.
You had 30 seconds on the toilet.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart" - Anne Frank

After we got back from Auschwitz, we were really emotionally exhausted, and figured that we would re-group at the hostel, and head out for dinner.  It was already dark, so it seemed like a logical plan.  After relazing and gathering ourselves, we were about to leave for dinner, figuring it was almost 7 pm.  Wrong!  I checked my watch…it was 4:30.  So we killed some more time, as it was too cold to be wandering aimlessly, and then went to dinner.  We went to a pub, where I ordered yet another amazing meal: honey-glazed ribs (that fell off the bone), potatoes, and cabbage.  We sat there and talked for a long time, having the kind of conversation that so naturally occurs when you travel and get to know people so well.  This was healing girl time with Sarah and Courtney, and I loved every bit of it.  We went back to the hostel, and hung out with our new friends for awhile before turning in. 

St. Mary's Basilica

Amazing Altar

Monday, we woke up as late as possible, had breakfast and hit the road to get in our final hours of exploration before having to get back on the bus to Budapest.  This involved another trip to Cloth Hall before we went inside St. Mary’s Basilica.  I think that I can safely say this church is one of the most beautiful in the world.  We also had great timing and got to see a nun open up with huge alter to St. Mary, which folded out, and was made during the 15^th Century.  Seeing all these amazing churches in Europe has made me return to my roots a little: if someone believes so strongly in these religions that they are able to make such places of tranquility and beauty, there has to be something out there to believe in.  Maybe I don’t have all the answers, but it’s nice to have spiritual connections to something, anything, once every now and then.  We took our time in the Church before getting our final Polish lunch (I had a traditional meal called bigos, which consists of cabbage and kielbasa), taking some last pictures, and shipping out.  Getting on the bus was bittersweet for a couple reasons: this was our last roommate trip, and we also realized how time is flying while we’re over here.  Everything seems to be slipping out of our hands.  This realization may have been a good thing though: I refuse to take anything else for granted while I’m over here.

Love for my girls

College seniors dontchya know.

YEAH!

Easily amused.

Little to Big

Live and Learn.