22nd March 2011

It's been almost a week since I wrote. And there's been so many things that I wanted to share about. I guess after a week everything is put into perspective and the things that seemed to be impressive are no longer as impressive as first thought. But there is one thing that I found amazing and I have to share with you.

If you know me well, you'll know that I love going to places where I know that there were people looking at the same thing many years ago. Well, on Saturday (11th) and Sunday (12th) while I was still in Warsaw I got to walk through the section of the city of Warsaw where the Jewish Ghetto used to be. I even saw the place where the wall stood that seperated the Ghetto from the rest of the city, and where so many people were shot in cold blood.

To tell you the truth, it was hard. I don't cry, as most of you know, but I did secretly shed a tear. How could I not when I was looking at a building where families had been shot dead in cold blood, where lives were destroyed and families split never to be united again, where people would be packed into wagons like sardines and taken to be exterminated like vermin. Just the thought of it makes me sick. How could people have been so evil?

As I walked down the street peering into the windows and alleyways of the derelict building that have been sanctioned off for renovation. I was sad, but not only for the tragic history and the pain that so many people had to endure--I can't even imagine the pain--but for the fact that soon those buildings would be changed, renovated, re-newed.

In a way I understand that the buildings need to be renovated and rebuilt. It's logical that updates to the buildings need to be made simply for health and safety of the public. But you see, when these changes will be made I won't be able to say that I touched the same brick that someone running away from the Gestapo would've touched. It's not so much the physical building, it's about the link that they provide between me, a person living in the 21st Century and those that have come before me and endured hardships just so that I could say that I am free.

Warsaw has many buildings and beautiful places to offer, but as my friend pointed out, most of them are not the originals. During the war most buildings were blown up by the enemy with the aim of eradicating Warsaw from the map of the world. Warsaw once used to be the envy of many, it used to be called the Paris of the east. The fact that there are so few original buldings, makes all the buildings that remain, all the more precious and priceless. At least in my eyes.