Through discussion, both Colleen and I (Madison) found various observations on the importance to preserve all aspects of history.
First part written by Colleen Schloss
Though the trip we have mostly spent our time in larger cities and seen how remembrance of times past has been set. Yet it is the smaller communities, the ones where scars of the past are still seen, poorly healed in some cases, that we can find how a people remember their town's past.
It seems that Poland and the USA have small town history remembrance - or lack thereof - in common in some ways. If the event/person is a positive remembrance for the town they are exalted and put on a pedestal. If the event/person is a negative then the past is left to deteriorate and the ruins overgrown. In terms of both we can see them in Jedwabne. Here we have a remembrance to a pogrom where members of the Jewish community had been burnt alive in a barn by local townspeople through encouragement of a mobile Nazi unit who did not take direct part. As the picture above shows, the monument is starting to deteriorate, the symbolic door has fallen off the memorial. In contrast (images below), there is a memorial to those town citizens who were deported by the Soviet regime before the German takeover that is well cared for and in town center. While two sides of the same coin, according to our guide Lukasz, they memorials have started a greater discussion of who should and should not be memorialized as heroes. That research needs to be done to verify facts for each so as to be as accurate as possible.
Yet looking at the above example, the memorials and their respective history do not seem to stick with education of the town's richer history that is buried as people want to forget. That is not to say that there are not those in the community who are trying to preserve these small town histories, just that few want to remember the bad that has happened and learn about the good that came before the bad. Which did happen, before bad there is good, just as after bad there is a resurgence of good as well. But to know the good of before, the hard parts of history must be known as well, which many seem to shy away from, both in Poland and back home.
As teachers part of what we do is try to explain the big picture, yet by doing so we lose so much of the minutiae that makes up the true history that create events as a whole, operating as though the bigger events sometimes came out of nothing, when the reality is that they had to start somewhere. A whisper can turn into a movement, both for the good and bad, but we should remember that it started with a whisper.
Second part written by Madison Sloan
Our group had the honor to learn from a lady named Cela. She is inspiring as she works extremely hard to make sure the stories of the small town Krynki are kept alive and taught to people. She took us around to various historical spots. The one that stuck with me the most was the ruins of a synagogue. It was just a piece of land with a little wall that was once the Great Synagogue.
I heard our tour guide say that it would make Cela’s day having us there learning from her because not many people listen to the story. This made me feel different feelings. I was happy to make Cela happy, but I also was saddened to hear this. Do people just not care when it comes to the history of small towns? Does it only “matter” if something happened in a big city- like Krakow or Warsaw? I also wondered if this is the same case when it comes to American history- do we often forget about the little places that hold big history? I found it amazing that there was so much history in one little town. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, but we were still filled with an historical lesson.
As a future teacher, I learned the importance to incorporate the small towns in history lessons. There are so many ways to place the small parts in with the big. I hope to be the teacher that does so.
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