Why Poland? Why Plaszow?
A friend suggested that I offer some information about why I am taking this trip. I initially heard about this project last summer when a former library colleague who studies Eastern Europe decided to go. When he came back, he impressed me with the stories he had to tell. At the same time, I had recently read a book called "After Long Silence" by Helen Fremont. It's the story of her parents, who grew up Jewish in Poland during World War 2. They endured all kinds of troubles and finally converted to Catholicism. Fremont had no idea about her parents' history and ended up sort of "outing" them, which caused no end of stress within her family. I've also been paying a little more attention to the story of my father's trials and tribulations in World War 2, during which time he ended up in a Nazi prisoner of war camp in Northwestern Poland. Much as I made up my mind to go to China in 1992 ("sure, why not") I decided to go to Poland and work at Plaszow.
So those are some of the reasons. If I think of others that are in some way pithy, I'll post them.
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