On July 31 we visited Treblinka extermination camp. I had been there before and again it is an empty place far from cities, hidden well from anyone that could know what happened there. Tiday it is a memorial of stones indicating all the places where the 600,000 some odd Jews where taken to be immediately(within 20 minutes of arrival) deceived into thinking they had arrived to a transit camp, sent to the gas and burned in an open pit. The only stone with a name is Janus Korchak the teacher who took all of the orphans from his orphanage, dressed them in their finest, and went with them to their death at this camp. The significance of this day, which truly made it a special day was the presence of "Chrisitna" Adams Great grandmother-in law. She is a Polish Christian of 93 who swore she would NEVER set foot in any of the camps.... today she did so and shared her story. It is important to realize that many Polish citizens suffered as well as the Jews. True, there were moe Poles who did turn in Jews, and today still there are anti Semitics in Poland, but the ones like Christina are the unsung heroes. She was 16 at the start of the war and fled east to Budapest. She studies pharmacy and also became active in forging documents for people who wanted to go back to Poland. She signed as a German officer. After several years she heard of the uprising to come to Warsaw and went to Poland illegally in order to join the Polish resistance. She had family in Warsaw and they were shocked when she knocked at their door. Christina is the only woman known to have come from another country to join the underground. She worked in a hospital in Warsaw during the night and slept during the day. August 1, 1944 the Warsaw uprising began which lasted 63 days. Amid bullets flying, she went to the hospital to help. She escaped through the sewers but was caught by the Germans and sent to a labor camp in Dachau. She suffered there for several months until the Americans came to liberate the camp. Through the translation of Adam, Christina expressed her inner most desire to rid the world of hatred and evil. At exactly 5 pm on August 1st as the buss rolled along the back roads from Treblinka, we stopped- ass did many throughout the country of Poland to mark the anniversary and time of the uprising the and valiant fight of the Poles and Jewish underground to fight against evil.
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