Our European Adventure, Day 8

This morning we got up fairly early so that we could walk around Warsaw and find some of the remnants of its lively Jewish past. Before World War II, Warsaw was approximately 10% Jewish - one of the highest concentrations of Jews in Europe.

We started the day off at the Jewish Historical Institute where we were able to see a movie detailiing the Jewish sufferings within the Warsaw Ghetto. The ghetto was decimated following its liberation, but during its time, hundreds of Jews died each month, mainly from starvation or yellow fever. After viewing the video, we were able to walk around the museum and look at memoriabilia and artwork that has been donated to the organization.

The inside of a mock synagogue in the Jewish Historical Institute

After leaving, we walked to old Warsaw. This part of the city is technically not much older than the rest because nearly all of Warsaw was torn apart during the war, but it was rebuilt to pre-war standards and looks very much like a picturesque European city. We dined near the river at a small outdoor restaurant on the tourist strip that served a variety of pasta, soup, and breakfast foods. Following the meal, we stopped in the tourist information center to purchase souveneirs in the local currency, zloty.

Madeline inside a church near old Warsaw

Our Polish lunch - ham and cheese toast

We strolled around this part of the city and its small alleyways and courtyards for about an hour because we thought we were getting closer to our next destination, the Jewish Cemetary. However, it turned out we were on the other side of town. When we finally located the cemetary, we each paid the entrance fee and were able to wander around a cemetary overloaded with gravestones. Matt noticed that a large amount of the gravestones in one section would all be from the same family and they would all have the same, or about the same, death date - during World War II. It was an awful realization and a very sobering place to spend the afternoon.

Old Warsaw

Me at the Jewish Cemetary

All of the gravestones were packed close together

After the graveyard was thoroughly explored, we strolled down the street to visit the memorial of Umschlagplatz - the sight where Jews were gathered to be shuttled like cattle to Treblinka, a nearby extermination camp. Many prisoners inside the Warsaw ghetto met this fate because the Nazis offered food rewards to Jewish volunteers willing to be transferred to the site.

We attempted to find the site of Mila 18 afterward, but were unable to locate the monument commemorating those who died in the bunker under the house located at Mila 18 during the Warsaw Uprising of World War II. Since we couldn't ask for directions to the monument as most people we encountered today did not speak English, we headed back to the train station near our hotel to purchase groceries for tomorrow's lunch and then the hotel for a little rest before dinner.

We ate a restaurant inside the train station called Il Patio and followed the meal up with some ice cream from a stand outside the restaurant before heading back to the hotel. Tomorrow we have to get up early to catch our train, so we're calling it an early night.