Laurie in Poland

Happy 4th!

But the indignity of it all: we had to work today! It's interesting being in a country on a national holiday of another country. While the desk attendant at the hostel greeted me with "best wishes on your holiday," the rest of Poland has so far not stopped work to light fireworks and eat cotton candy.

Today was the second day we've been onsite with another volunteer organization: students and their adults from Poland, Germany and Israel, who go around to Jewish cemeteries in Poland "tidying them up." On the surface, this sounds like a great idea. Slightly below the surface, they've just about clearcut the land, removing almost every tree (all small, but nice) except that they leave the all important 6-10 inches of stump to trip over. They also have their weed whackers doing overtime duty. Again, good, but I noticed today that for each blade of grass they trim, they just bend three more. So, today, we raked their whackings. This would not be such a bad chore, but I believe I've mentioned the rake situation before. Sadly, today's casualties included a rake and a broom. The rake that I used most of the day is made for a hobbit.

While we raked the other group swept gravestones and did some clipping. After the day ended, we all hung our heads wondering who will cut and rake the grass in another 6 weeks, when it will be knee high again. But ours is not to wonder why, or who, for that matter.

So, as for this other group, I identified today why I am uncomfortable with them. It's because they have all the connections and we're just some grass roots (pardon the bad pun) volunteers. Connection #1: Last Friday, the first day they were onsite, I noticed an older man walking around. Turns out he is an Auschwitz veteran and he is funding some of their work. He is from Hungary, and emigrated to Israel many years ago. We were able to talk to him at length, about his experiences during and after WW2, and he was very generous with his time. He had never heard of our organization, but praised us mightily for the work we're doing. Connection #2: today, a fellow from the Jewish Historical Institute from Warsaw spent some time with them. He came over to us and showed us some articles he has about Plaszow. One of them has a map that shows the borders of the cemetery though all of us, even some of the Poles who have spent a significant amount of time onsite, can't translate the map boundaries into reality. Connection #3: a reporter from a regional newspaper who took pictures of the cemetery for a spread that is to appear tomorrow. I don't know who alerted her to Plaszow, but she spent most of her time with the other group.

Our connections? Well, we have Kasia, our friend and program coordinator, who is trying to keep various entities happy (including cranky Americans), while moving the project forward on a shoestring. We also have a fabulous Pole named Taddeusz who brings us lunch and says, "Here is your breakfast, madam." You have see his presentation, which is quite stylish. If I remember, I'll make a video.

In my last posting, I noted that today began my last week and that I had a lot of mixed emotions. I didn't realize that jealousy was among them!

posted by Laurie Sabol @ 7/04/2005 06:16:00 PM