Treblinka Death Camp

A Jewish American Explores Her Family's Past In Eastern Europe

WASHINGTON — "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

My aunt showed me this quote by German philosopher Martin Buber she had written on the front page of her travel diary as we boarded our plane in New York City for Eastern Europe. We didn't realize how true it would be to our own voyage.

More than a year ago plans were made between my dad's sister and our mutual paternal cousin to travel back to "the old country" and see where our ancestors had lived before coming to Americ a. (The first to come over on my father's paternal side was my grandfather's uncle in 1871; he changed our family name from Tikotzinski to Epstein.) I have been working on my family's tree for many years, so my aunt and cousin decided I should be a part of the trip as well.

We would travel to Grodno, Belarus, where my grandfather was born (then part of Russia), and Sokolka, Poland, where HIS father was born. We would travel to Minsk, Belarus (also then part of Russia), home of my father's maternal grandparents. Our cousin's mother's side of the family was known to have perished outside Panevezys, Lithuania, in World War II, so we would make a pilgrimage there as well.

Three other major cities were included — Warsaw, Poland; Moscow, and Vilnius, Lithuania — to give us a chance to see the sites there. And thus became our trip.

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Before World War II, Warsaw was a major center of Jewish life and culture, with one-third of the population consisting of Jews. The Jewish community of 394,000 was the largest in both Polan d and Europe and second largest in the world.

From October 1939 to January 1940, the Germans began their anti-Jewish measures — prohibiting Jews from riding in public transportation, requiring them to wear the Jewish star, and conscrip ting them into forced labor. In April 1940, the ghetto construction began. Thirty percent of Warsaw's population was to be confined to an area that comprised of just 2.4 percent of city lands. Chri stians were moved out of the area as Jews from Warsaw and other outlying areas were moved in and the population of the Warsaw Ghetto reached more than half a million people. The ghetto was almost e ntirely leveled during an uprising in 1943 but a number of streets and buildings survived.

We spent most of a day at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, where Jan Jagielski gave us a tour of the museum as well as his library archives. He had walls full of binders for each city and town in Poland. These binders showed photos of the synagogues and yeshivas as well as of some of the Jewish people who lived there. We also were given our own screening of "912 Days of the Warsaw Ghetto," a sobering documentary about the ghetto and eventual extermination of the Jews.

This Day ... In Jewish History: This Day, June 30, In Jewish History

713 CE: In Spain, Visigoth nobility which had held out against the invading Moslem forces, throughout the winter of 712 finally surrendered to the Arabs. A majority of the remaining Goths and Hispano-Roman people who lived in the newly acquired areas eventually converted to Islam. The Jews, who had been persecuted by the ruling Goths, proved to be the exception. They kept their religious identity and flourished under the new rulers. 1522: Johann Reuchlin “a German humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew” who “for much of his life… was the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany, passed away. “In 1510, Reuchlin was drawn into a bitter controversy with the Jewish-Dominican convert Johannes Pfefferkorn, who had convinced the emperor to confiscate and burn copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books. Asked for his opinion on the issue, Reuchlin urged the preservation of this literature and recommended the establishment of a chair of Hebrew in each of the major universities. As a result of his efforts, the order to destroy the Jewish books was rescinded. However, his enemies persisted, and Reuchlin had to face charges from the Inquisition. He was able to deflect the accusations for a time and returned to teaching …. Reuchlin is considered a hero in the history of European Judaism.” 1680: In Madrid, an Auto de Fe was held in honor of the marriage of Carlos II to Louis Marie d’Orleans. It took place in the Plaza Mayor and lasted 14 hours. Over 50,000 spectators came to see 118 accused sentenced to prison or burned. It marked the last time that a "royal" auto was held since Carlos’ successor, Philip V, refused the "honor." took place in the Plaza Mayor 1785: James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony (and later the state) of Georgia passed away. Georgia had been created by Oglethorpe as an alternative to Debtor’s Prison. However, when a boatload of Sephardic Jews arrived in the colony a month after its founding, Oglethorpe welcomed them as he did a subsequent arrival of German Jews who came a year later. Oglethorpe did this despite the opposition of the trustees which surely endeared him to this remnant of the House of Israel. 1866: Today, in Romania, Jews were attacked maimed and robbed. The Bucharest Synagogue was desecrated and demolished. As a result of the violence Article 6 of the 1866 Constitution was replaced by Article 7.

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