Vilnius learning and fun ~ Monday, June 23, 2014

Fruma's shop in Vilnius, circa 1935

After breakfast we had a Jewish Heritage Tour of Vilnius with a pre-arranged guide named Jurate.  For the next three hours we walked through quite a bit of the older part of Vilnius, because Jews comprised more than 30% of the urban population and could be referenced at all major buildings.  

Sights included the one remaining synagogue, the location of the walls of the smaller and bigger Jewish ghetto, and the first Lithuanian monument dedicated to Chiune Sugihara.  Jurate seemed to have more energy for walking and touring, but we were brought to the town square where we broke for lunch.  

Lithuanians take great
pride in their coffee designs.

disquieting facade of a Vilnius theater company

 As usual, we all scattered to restaurants that served our favorite cuisines.









One group of students joined Dr. O'Sullivan for authentic German food.  Who knew you could find this in Vilnius?  Students enjoyed it very much.

outside of the only remaining historical synagogue in Vilnius

Although our walking tour had ended, our exploration of Jewish heritage in Lithuania continued with a visit to the “Center for Tolerance,” Lithuania’s Jewish State and Holocaust Museum, which contained a lot of information on the history of Lithuanian Jews.  There was an exhibit of 20^th century paintings, and beautifully crafted silver ritual objects like candelabras, goblets, and spice boxes.  The museum also demonstrated the plight of the Lithuanian people under both German and Soviet rule.  Some of our students noted that, despite the dark period of the Holocaust, the museum's very existence is a testament to the will of the people to survive.

This museum was a great preparation for that night's event.  Prof. Myers had arranged a meeting with the leaders of the Vilnius Jewish community and some college students. 

can you believe these are doors to the university?!

We met at the Jewish Community Center, an attractive, well-guarded building topped with a large white statue of Moses.  We were greeted and served an assortment of cookies, chips, cheeses, coffee, and wine.  Amit, the president of the organization of Jewish college students in Lithuania, opened with a powerful speech declaring that the center was most important to the study of Lithuanian Jews because "it is the living part of the culture."  We were then greeted by a woman named Faina, the head of the Jewish community of Vilnius and Lithuania.  She told us her personal history and the responsibilities of her organization, one of which is to educate Lithuanian non-Jews about the Jewish historical experiences.  We then met Shimon, the community's executive director, who was one of the first beneficiaries of the JCC’s establishment after the Soviet era.

gone in no time

Amit then divided us into small groups and assigned one of her college student friends to each group.  We all made introductions and spoke about ourselves.  After about ten minutes, the Lithuanian students moved to the next small group.  As a result, we had individual welcomes from each of the students and had the chance learn about each other.  As thanks for arranging the meeting, Amit presented Prof. Myers with a  grafo sakotis (tree cake), a Lithuanian favorite.

Our meeting concluded around 8 pm, but the socializing was by no means finished. We dispersed for a quick dinner, and within an hour, many of our students met the Lithuanian college students for an exclusive tour of Vilnius night life.  Since it was the evening of the national holiday and the college students had just completed their final exams, they were eager to party all night long.  Some of our students happily joined in them, parting at different hours – some after the sun rose in the morning, just in time for the next day’s activities.   

our hostel's dog ~
at least he was alert the next day!

Trakai, Ponary, and our first exposure to Vilnius ~ Sunday, June 22, 2014

Walking toward the island castle in the mist

Our new bus driver arrived promptly, and we loaded our luggage and headed toward Vilnius in the rain.  Leonardas won our hearts by turning on a Russian music video (after 20 minutes we begged him to turn it off), allowing us to eat in the bus, entertaining us with creative driving maneuvers, and talking animatedly in Russian with Prof. O’Sullivan throughout the trip.  He also agreed to let us spend one hour in the Trakai Castle, while he went and fetched us the famous local main-dish pastries, kibinai.

From here you can see them making kibinai

The Trakai Castle was built on an island in the 14^th century by a Lithuanian grand duke.  It had glorious red stone walls, drawbridges over moats, and turrets.  The Soviets restored it as a gift to Lithuania after World War II, and it is a popular tourist destination.  Some rooms had exhibits of Victorian-style china, coins, and purses, while others contained paintings.  We raced through the rooms and squeezed up the narrow flights of stone stairs.   Our visit to Trakai was over far too soon.  We gathered at the bus stop and welcomed Leonardus and his precious booty, kibinai stuffed with lamb, pork, chicken, or cheese.  

Just outside of Vilnius we stopped at Ponary, or Panierai. 

one of the Jewish memorial stones

Making our way through the rain we went into a little museum and were greeted by an old and eloquent guide who pointed to the museum exhibits and told of the horrendous events that occurred here.  Panierai was a village alongside a rail line, and nearby were large pits built by the Soviets for oil storage.  The Germans used the site for mass murdering 100,000 people here and using the pits as mass graves.  Later they tried to hide their crimes by forcing prisoners to cremate the dead.  About 70,000 of the victims were Jews from Vilnius and the surrounding areas, many who had been imprisoned into the Vilna Ghetto.  The rest were soldiers and civilians who were non-Jewish Lithuanians, Poles, Romani, and Russians.  We stopped at the stone memorials and sculptures honoring the victims.  It was melancholy and beautiful, the forest and grass damp from the misty rain.  A moment of grace occurred when a moose appeared on a path between the trees nearby the students.  Noticing us, it disappeared into the woods.

Back on the bus, it was a short, quiet ride to the capital city.  The hostel was not yet ready for us, so we left our luggage and walked into Old Town Vilnius.  The air was cool and clean, and people were playing games in the midst of the street shut off from the traffic.  We could see that we would enjoy our last four days of our trip in this pretty and lively town.

fried onions, sour cream, and butter on top
of potato dough and a bit of stuffing

That night we had a group dinner featuring the national Lithuanian dish, cepelinai.  It’s sort of like a dumpling, but with moist, thick, bland outside, and inside is a mystery meat (or, in the case of the vegetarian version, a mystery cheese).

Perhaps the 2.9 million Lithuanians love it, but let us just say that for most of us, it was the first and last time cepelinai will pass our lips.

An Užupis wall tile commemorating a poet, writer,
 and diplomat from these parts who refused to identify
himself as either a Lithuanian or a Pole

And, to top off the day, we went to yet another cemetery.  It was in the charming section of Vilnius known as Užupis.  Prof. O’Sullivan’s friend Aurimas took us on a tour of this artsy neighborhood which has declared itself a separate, independent republic.  “Everyone has the right to be unique,” “Everyone has the right to be unhappy,” “Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat,” and “Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday” are among the 39 articles of their constitution.







Wire, ceramic, tile, and stone sculptures are placed between the trees, on the buildings, and in the square.  We loved their quirky humor.

Aurimas insisted that the pretty, wooded cemetery established in the 19^th century was not a site to miss. It appeared strangely normal, filled with graves of people who mostly lived and died like they were supposed to.

We returned to the hostel.  Some students stayed up to watch the World Cup, others collapsed onto their clean beds.

Good news in Kaunas, Lithuania ~ Saturday, June 21, 2014

Dear Readers: Today’s post will include events that are definitely more upbeat!  No mass graves, no cemeteries, and we will focus on Jews who lived and the non-Jews who saved them! 

Oh, did we mention that our bus driver (who was supposed to be with us until airport drop-off) abandoned us last night?  Perhaps we depressed him with our sad itinerary.  He would have been happy with today’s activities.  But without him, we had to trudge MILES through rainy and cold Kaunas, up steep hills and down uneven cobblestone streets.  (All this is true). 

Kaunas Choraline Synagogue

In the morning, after enjoying presentations from three different students, we walked to the synagogue.  We merely looked at the impressive outside, and Prof. Myers talked about the determination of the Orthodox Jews to preserve their traditions. 

Like true scholars eager for knowledge, we marched through the streets and up a steep city hill, the drivers of the buses and cars amazed at our energy.  At the top was a lovely park-like neighborhood where we eventually found the former Japanese Embassy, currently the Sugihara Museum.  It had also been the home of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul to Lithuania in 1939-41, his children, and his wife, Yukiko, who played an important role in the saga.   

a life-saver

Defying orders from his superiors, he issued about 5,000 (numbers vary) travel visas to Polish Jewish refugees fleeing war-torn Poland.  With these documents, they traveled through the USSR on the Trans-Siberian Railway and reached safety in Asia.  Photos, documents, and maps decorated the rooms of the museum.  We also watched a very inspiring film with testimonies of those saved by Sugihara.   

Kaunas Jewish community members

Prof. Myers had arranged a meeting with members of the Kaunas Jewish community who met us at the museum.   One was a survivor, and despite her persecution at the hands of non-Jews, she is actively involved in interfaith fellowships.






Others were involved in social-welfare tasks of the community or planning programs.  Each spoke to us in a different language, and it’s a good thing Prof. O’Sullivan could translate the German, Lithuanian, and Russian! 

nutritious?  

We ate lunch in Old Town Kaunas.  What are our lunches like?  Typically, everybody scatters in groups of 2 – 4 to the nearest restaurant (no such thing as fast food in Poland or Lithuania), attempting to decipher the menu and not irritate the waitresses too much, and then, when the food finally arrives after agonizing minutes, everybody inhales the meal in the effort to meet back at the promised time.  Invariably, some people are late, and after much sighing and checking of watches, the entire group takes off to conquer the next challenge.

This next activity may sound hellish, but it wasn’t.

Driftwood devil

We went to The Devil’s Museum.   This is a private collection of carvings, sculptures, paintings, pottery, and items that portray the devil from different cultural traditions.  They varied from the comic to the horrific in multiple artistic styles and materials, filling four floors of the building.

Lietuva means Lithuania, and notice the basketball logo.

Gathering together afterwards in the lobby, Rauhman taught us about Lithuanians’ obsession with basketball. 

"The King's Fairy Tale"

Jeremy followed with an exposition on the Lithuanian musician and painter Mikalojus Čiurlionis (choor-lee-o-niss) – and then most of us walked across the street to the Čiurlionis Museum to view the work of the artist himself.    The paintings were exotic, haunting, abstract, and beautiful!

We were not allowed to take photos, but we found this online image of one of the paintings we liked:  

After a day devoid of tragedy, we were exhausted.  We ordered pizza into the hostel for dinner and went to bed early.

Wolf's Lair and canoeing ~ Tuesday, June 17, 2014

We traveled on through the green pastures and endless rows of trees, eagerly awaiting our destination – Wolf’s Lair.  Many of us recalled the historical site from the movie Valkyrie, a 2008 film featuring Tom Cruise, which focused on the failed attempt of Claus Stauffenberg (and his co-plotters) to assassinate Hitler. Most people think that Hitler was in Berlin during the war, however, most of the time he was in this place.  His base was extremely well fortified and camouflaged by fake foliage to become immersed in the surrounding forest.  Remnants of netting and plastic leaves on the trees were visible from the trail as we entered the area.

A large map displaying the schematics of the lair was posted at the entrance. Professor O’Sullivan immediately seized the opportunity to share with us the story behind the site and translate the display. After a thorough lecture and a series of questions from the group, we proceeded onto the trail hoping to meet our tour guide.  We did meet her as well as mosquitoes that greeted us with gusto throughout the bulk of journey through the bunker site, requiring a series of bug spray showers every few meters.

Our guide, Jadwiga, was a passionate, humorous (sassy, even – see the video page), and extremely knowledgeable source for the physical site as well as the details of the assassination plot.  She would intersperse her information with anecdotes that don’t usually appear in our textbooks, and that was quite refreshing and kept us attentive.  Did you know that Hitler suffered from “gastric disturbances”?  She told us, with particular relish, “He farted like a pig!”  Not that we know how that sounds, but it definitely painted a picture!     

From Jadwiga we learned how Poles, who now are in charge of these ruins and this whole formerly-German lake region, use dark humor and games to exult in the eventual victory over Hitler. 

sun-dappled ruins

 Lots of the buildings were half-destroyed and leaning to the side, only “supported” by what appeared to be bundles of sticks. We later found out that these sticks are placed there by Poles who choose a stick size according to the wish: a small stick means all your dreams will come true, a medium stick means you will come back to Poland (Aren't they already in Poland? We didn’t really understand that one), and the large stick meant you will have a good marriage. 

venturing under concrete-reinforced buildings

The site was full of what appeared to be ruins from an ancient civilization; however, we knew that the Germans had occupied these buildings no more than 70 years ago. It gave us an eerie feeling to walk on the same footpaths that Hitler had taken not so long ago.  It was one thing to learn about the events and read them in a book, but being there was an intense experience.  The departing Germans followed a “scorched earth” policy, meaning that they wrecked everything so their opponents could not benefit.  We explored and entered a few of the buildings that had managed to survive the destruction. Most of the rooms were dark and cold with stalactites of calcium deposits dripping down from the ceiling. The ground was rough and uneven and large fragments of fallen walls and ceilings formed all sorts of obstacles as we walked. 

Adam chose to test those limits.

 Jadwiga told us the purpose of each building – dining hall, conference rooms, ammunition warehouse, summer residence, etc. – and the places where the high ranking officers and infamous people in power resided.    Even here, where Hitler’s closest associates were gathered around him, there were places off-limits to many. 

Hitler was paranoid, and actually he had good reason to be so, but it was startling to learn that every morning he’d take his German shepherds out for a stroll and everyone had to be at a distance. 

Like all of our intensive experiences, we followed it with a meal.  We found a single restaurant in a nearby town and gobbled delicious Polish foods way too fast.  Then we returned to Folwark Lekuk. 

Folwark and the dreaded pirate kayakers

 Most of us went kayaking.  Paired up, two to a kayak, each couple was distinct in their conquest of the lake: some sped on ahead and showed off, another couple (“the pirates”) got sidetracked by the wind, and some made intimate acquaintance with spiders when they veered into the reeds.  It was an exhilarating contrast to the somber reality of the morning’s lesson.  

For dinner, everyone gathered around a campfire next to lake.  The sun was still shining at 8 p.m. as we all admired the vegetables that had been arranged for us and the sausages that were there to roast over the open fire.  Full of food, exhausted from the exciting day, we all crawled back to our den for a good night's sleep. 

post-meal selfie

Last day in Warsaw ~ Sunday, June 15, 2014

Sunday was a day that we got more immersed into Polish life, coming face-to-face with people to learn about Poland in a personal way.

One of many beautiful Polish churches

First thing in the morning, we walked up hill to the main street and entered the Holy Cross Church for Sunday mass.  That one single church service provoked a wide variety of reactions.  Some found the mass “wonderful,” while others found it boring or irritating or hard to relate to – then again, it was entirely in Polish!  Those familiar with Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy noted the slight differences in the service and rituals.  We could see that many Polish congregants were deeply moved, including the two Polish people from the hostel who attended, but the school-age kids who were led inside clearly did not want to be there.  All of us agreed that the church was pretty, though not that ornate – where was all the stained glass??  And how could you ignore the fact that there, in the marble pillar next to us, Chopin’s heart was interred?  The rest of his body was buried in France.  Doesn’t that provoke religious feelings in you???

Joseph trying and failing to fit in with the local Poles

From staid, conservative Catholicism, we entered the world of loud, proud, evangelical Christianity.  This is a new phenomenon in Poland.  Our contact was not planned.  Hundreds were gathered in the plaza in front of our destination, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but they drew us in with their contemporary pop rock, red shirts emblazoned with “Jezus cie kocha,” and inexplicable waving of world flags.

Since we are Americans and used to such in-your-face religious expression, we walked around them and gathered around Donal for a lesson about the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the key battles commemorated on the plaques.  We strolled through beautiful Saski Park.  We found statues representing fields of knowledge, and all the history majors and Prof. O’Sullivan posed in the shadow of their historical muse. 

Smile for the camera!

They have legos in Poland too?

We continued our journey through town until the Warsaw Uprising Monument, broke for lunch, and met together in Castle Square.  The afternoon’s activity was to be a tour of the city of Praga across the Vistula. 

Once there, we discovered another side of Warsaw.  Praga is like a city in transition, composed of different types of buildings side by side: decrepit old elegant buildings, concrete Communist-era blocky structures, and modern colorful office buildings.  Unsuccessful at finding a renovated Jewish bath house, we did find a building that still had a mezuzah container on the entrance gate. 

But the highlight of the day was hanging out with Polish college students from SWPS (Warsaw University of Social Sciences and Psychology). 

Students from all corners of the world 

Four of them had volunteered to meet us in the college cafeteria, and in short order they offered to show us around Lazienki Park and the Palace of Culture.   

Man, I look good!

The park had interesting wildlife.

We saw peacocks, red squirrels, tiny mice with stripes down their back that darted around the bushes, and friendly ducks.  Bridges arched over beautiful ponds, and fountains sprayed.

Waffles, cream, and warm
toffee sauce - the best!

It was gorgeous, but of course so
was dessert at the café.

We had to hurry to make it to the Palace of Culture look-out tower before it closed at 8 p.m., and we got in the door with 2 minutes to spare.  Luckily they let us stay up there (33 floors high) to marvel at the perfect view of Warsaw on the sunny and clear day.

Stalin's "gift" to Warsaw 

   

The spaceship is actually a soccer stadium!

“Speak to us in Californian,” one of the students asked.  This is strange.  We have accents?  Nonsense.  Our English is the standard version!  While half of them practiced their English on us, the others spoke Spanish to some of us.  What an opportunity it was to meet sweet and friendly people like us who took time to show us around.  We all had a great time.    

Seeing another world together