Handmade Animal Sweaters

Handmade 3D animal sweaters for you-know-who and her cousin.

Busy in Budapest

I don't have much time to post today because I am very, very busy holding up the Parliament Building in Budapest...

Whew!

So busy in Budapest that it's hard to find time to post pictures.  Learning so much that it's hard to put it all into words.  Budapest is awesome and made even more awesome by the fact that the World Cup is going on (giant TVs and fans everywhere), there is a meeting of four heads of state at our hotel and the hotel next door (police everywhere) and today is the Day of Independent Hungary (people and rock bands everywhere).

Today, we saw a ton of stuff.  The second largest synagogue in the world - Dohany Synagogue - which looks more like a cathedral than a synagogue, monuments, memorials and more.  We had time for a lovely leisurely lunch of chicken paprika on the banks of the Danube.  Bought some paprika (hot and sweet) for everyone.  

Later this afternoon, we visited the Frenkel Synagogue and met a young Rabbi and his charismatic wife who are doing an AMAZING job rebuilding the Jewish community here.  What an inspiration!!  We fell in love with them.  The story of the young Jews in this town is so fantastic -- I can't wait to tell you all about it. I couldn't begin to write about it in a blog.  

A few pics from today:

The Dohany Synagogue

 

Us

Memorial sculpture followed by description

Notice above that this takes the form of an upside down menorah to signify that the world was upside down.

The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorializes the Jews who were taken to edge of the Danube, told to take off their shows, then were shot and fell into the River to float away.  Sixty pair of shoes (appropriate to the period of 1944-45) were created in cast iron and affixed to the edge of the riverbank.

Slovakia - Budapest Photos

Beautiful scenery in Slovakia.  This was our drive today:

Lunch in Slovakia began with Slivovitz

And ended with disgusting poppy strudel

Sooooooo happy to be in Budapest!! View from our hotel:

Ahhhh!  Nice city :-)

74 Year Anniversary

So, we get to Auschwitz to find out that on this day - 74 years ago - the first transport of Jews arrived at Auschwitz.  They were from Tarnow.

I did not feel like taking a single picture at Auschwitz and Birkenau.  It felt intrusive.  And, I have nothing to write.  There are no words.

Tomorrow - long bus trip to Budapest with lunch stop in Slovakia.  I have learned that while "on the road" the best thing to eat for lunch is vodka.  Vodka here is amazing!!

Plascow and Galicia Jewish Museum

Good morning !

Visit to Plaszow, the forced labor and death camp outside of Kracow notorious for sadistic treatment and random executions of victims - populated by the Jews of the liquidated Krakow Ghetto.  It's unclear how many thousands of Jews were killed here because records have been destroyed.

Haunting sculpture sits on the hill overlooking the site of the camp --- all remnants of which are gone:

Next stop...

The Galicia Jewish Museum which houses an excellent collection of photographs documenting the remnants of Jewish culture and life in Polish Galicia

Photo of Jewish gravestones being used for paving on the street

Lots of information about Tarnow - Grammy Rosie's home town

This afternoon - Auschwitz:

Krakow

Moving along... A five hour bus ride ride south through the Polish countryside brought us to Krakow - a large city which actually was not bombed by the Nazis.  It is a university town and 20% of the population are students.  Most of us have seen Schindler's List and so we are familiar with the round up of the Jews into the Kracow Ghetto and the eventual liquidation of that Ghetto to the death camp.

Here's Marc, fully wired for sound, and about to tour Kracow-

I know we looked at cemetery photos yesterday, but this story is amazing.  Outside of the Remuh Synagogue, which survived the war (after being occupied by Nazi troops) sits the Remuh Cemetery.

Before the Nazis invaded Kracow, the Jews took all these gravestones and laid them down then covered them with dirt.  The Nazis stored all kinds on things on top of these graves, never knowing what was below.  After the war, the markers were re-erected above the graves.  Broken stones formed this wall--

Next we went to Schindler's Factory, which is actually a large WWII museum of the history of Kracow during the war.  Schindler's List plays a small part in the museum, but the larger history puts the Schindler story in greater context.  Our guide was a passionate and articulate young man who truly presented a good picture of the plight of Kracow's Jews and the occupation by the Nazi barbarians.

The blogger with Schindler's pots.

Marc with the names of Schindler's workers