Olivia Williams, student at Father Michael McGivney CHS who also participated in the excursion to Poland and France, left symposium participants with a powerful message:
The Jewish uprising that we learnt about in Warsaw started because of the Nazi Germans taking away people who they had forced into a ghetto and onto trains to the Treblinka extermination camp. The people did not want to go as they had heard about the many people who were being killed in cold blood. The Jewish people who lived in the ghetto began to rebel against the Germans. Another critical event that helped some Jews survive in the ghetto of Warsaw during the Holocaust was the escape through underground sewers. These "roads" were made so that many Jewish refugees could escape to safety from the advancing Nazis. Some important facts were that people were not allowed to bring their babies or children along with them since making a sound or the wail of a newborn would endanger the lives of many who travelled those 10-20 km underground. These Jewish people were very determined to have their welfare secured; for this they had to endure crouching in the dark, disgusting and putrid smelling sewers for weeks in order to get to their destination. They had to walk with their hands and feet on the walls so as to not make a splashing noise in the sewers and become discovered by the Nazis roaming along the roads in search of more people to send to the camps.
Today, the city of Warsaw is actually very new because it was completely destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, but it was later rebuilt by the Soviets of Russia. While on our tour of Warsaw with our guide, we were given the opportunity to see many different statues symbolizing different events that took place. One particular statue that was prominent was that of a child soldier; our guide told us that the statue symbolized all the children who fought and died in the Warsaw uprising. These children could not stand to see their country being taken over, and so they decided to become soldiers who sometimes fought with the rebels against the Nazis. Mostly, the children were used to take messages from one underground group to another so that the adult rebels could plan attacks without being under too much suspicion. On this trip I learnt that was itself can be a horrible thing and if we don't take the right precautions or try to help in whatever small ways we can, the tragedy may just happen over again.
An example that I was taught on the trip which inspired me was that when all the Jews were being taken away by the Germans to the concentration and labour camps, the King of Denmark thought it was wrong. To protect the citizens of Denmark, he set an extremely intelligent example: he wore a yellow star on his clothing. Gradually, all the citizens of the country did the same. When the Nazis came to Denmark to capture the Jews and take them away, they could not take anyone because they couldn't tell people apart from each other. This created much conflict for them and they ended up not taking anyone at all. In this way, the people of Denmark were able to resist Nazi capture and took a stand at the same time. The small act of sewing a golden star onto their clothing made such a big difference. It made me wonder... if every other person would have done the same thing, would as many men, women and children of Jewish origin have been captured? Just goes to show what a difference a small act can make and what impact it can or may have on others around you.
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