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| The gravestone of a learned Jewish man |
Our day began with an early departure from Gizycko. We drove eastward into the small town of
Suwalki, rich with history, where we found the pre-war Jewish cemetery. While we waited at the gate for the key to
enter, a local boy from a nearby home approached us in the rain and very
excitedly shouted “Hello!” and ran back inside. He repeated the process every
few minutes, delighted to have company. Adam
provided us with a history of Suwalki from its first Christian settlers until
its current state. In the last hundred years, Suwalki has been the possession
of Germany, Russia, or Poland. This
cemetery contains graves of seven different religions. The Jewish one was the most in ruin – it was destroyed
by the German army in World War II.
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| Running in the rain towards the wall |
We
accessed the Jewish cemetery, which was mostly an overgrown field, by walking
through its neighboring Russian Orthodox cemetery in the down pouring
rain.
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| The wall of broken tombstones |
We huddled under rain ponchos and
umbrellas behind a wall plastered on both side with fragments of Jewish
gravestones that appeared to have been harvested from the ground and combined
into one massive memorial. The Jewish
section also contained a memorial to the Holocaust victims but there were no
post-war graves.
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| Jonathan quietly thinking "I could climb this." |
After we left the cemetery, we made our way to the border. Our first stop in Lithuania was in the small
border town of Kalwarija. Here, with the
help of some of the town’s locals, we managed to find the old Jewish ruins with
only one photograph and no address. These
were three abandoned and ruined buildings, at least one of which had been a
synagogue in a once-lively Jewish community. It was a dark reminder of the events that the
Jewish people faced at the time, and there does not seem to be any chance that
the Jews will return to Kalwarija to renovate it.
Now it was time for a brief lunch break and an exchange of
currency. We learned that ATMs dispense large bills that restaurant cashiers are not able to break. They demonstrated remarkable patience as many students placed their orders and walked outside in search of smaller bills.
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| The beautiful bend |
Our next stop was in the nearby town of Marijampole. Here, we searched for the memorial at the
mass grave in the bend of the river. We
relied on our maps to reach the monument, but were unable to find it until a woman
in her house came outside in curiosity.
Prof. O’Sullivan spoke with her in Russian. Before we knew it, this kind
woman was walking us down the monument and leading the way. It was a short hike
down the hill. Professor Myers read a
first-hand account from a witness of the mass murder of about 7,000 Jews and
1,000 people of other backgrounds. They were
rounded up by the German
Einsatzgruppen
(soldiers of the assassination squads) who arranged for Lithuanian high school and
university-aged students to carry out the murders. We all found it so disturbing that the
murderers were people our age! It was
hard to be in the place where so many had been massacred. Prof. Myers translated the message on the
memorial stone, and we gazed around at the lush grassy area, dotted with
cottages, along the beautiful river bend.
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| Kaunus Old Town Square |
Our day concluded with a drive into Kaunus, the former
capital of Lithuania that contains many tall and nice buildings. After settling into our hostel, we embarked
on a short walk to Old Town. In the city’s main square, which is home to many
old churches, we learned town’s historical significance before our group
dinner. This was our introduction to the
Lithuanian cuisine, which included a main course of a chicken breast stuffed
with a grilled plum, vegetables, and for dessert a delicious vanilla ice cream
with a raspberry topping.
This very long day included beautiful scenery, two
cemeteries, ruins, a solemn mass grave site, and the big city of Kaunus. We slept well in preparation for the next
day’s full tour of the city.
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