Page 22 - Issue 22

Lebensraum (living space), that encouraged Germans to
move and colonize Eastern Europe without Slavs, Jews, and
any other group they considered undesirable. The Poles
fought against the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising to
secure their independence outside the lurking influence of
the Soviet Union. However, they were defeated and the
Germans destroyed a huge portion of the city. The Poles
wouldn't see freedom until the Revolutions of 1989, after
forty years of communist rule. Despite their loss, the effort
and act to fight was a bold move in order to demonstrate
courage and unity of a peoplehood.

The sixth day was March 26th. Throughout this entire
seminar, it has been a very interesting yet depressing, grey
experience. We started the day in the small village of
Tykocin. It looked very picturesque of a quiet, undisturbed
part of Poland. A Jewish community lived here, which is
very surprising in a town out in the countryside. The
synagogue was the last remnant to signify a Jewish
presence in the town. Scholars, Rabbis, and even a girls
school, created an immersive cultural center for the Jewish
people. Unfortunately, when the Nazis were given control of
the region which included Tykocin, they rounded up all the
Jews and shot them in the forest of Lopuchowo. Looking at
the plaques and Israeli flags that were lined on the fence of
the mass graves represented an entire culture killed within
one day in a peaceful forest. I didn’t really have a reaction at
that moment. There was only a blank expression that held
some degree of sympathy that couldn’t be seen on my face.
Today was my birthday. How could I celebrate a joyous
occasion without the graven mark of tragedy in front of me?
Birthdays are usually featured with singing, a party, and a
birthday cake. Instead, there were clouds, bleak weather,
and death. However, the only exception was the last
concentration camp we traveled to. Unlike Auschwitz and
Majdanek, Treblinka gave me a unique impression that