Memories

Sunday, 14 August

Walking tour Old Town Warsaw.

Open-air piano concert in Lazienki Park.

Group visit to Polin Museum.
Lecture by Marian Turski, survivor from Lodz and Auschwitz camp.
Talk with Child of the Holocaust representative, Barbara?Schmid.

Belchatow

Tuesday, 16 August

Belchatow: Walking throuh the old town.

Visiting the regional museum and its Judaica collection.

Trip to the former shtetl Szczercow (cemetery).

Trip to the former shtetl Widawa (cemetery).

Welcome dinner in Hotel Santin (Belchatow) with Mr. Politański, vice-mayor.

Bus trip to Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp. Guided tour of museum. Commemoration ceremony at the Belchatow monument.

Lecture by Scott about genealogy research and exhange of information about Belchatower families.

Commemoration event at Narutowicza Square, opposite the site of the former synagogue. Speeches by Andrzej Selerowicz, Avi Rozental, and the Mayor of Belchatow, Marola Czechowska.
Playing of the national anthems of Poland and Israel by the town band.
Laying of flowers.

Saying Kaddish at the Jewish cemetery in Belchatow with representatives of the Jewish community in Lodz.
Afterwards information about the plans for the cemetery and renovation of the tombstones.
Followed by farewell lunch.

Open-air concert of Jewish music at town center.

After the concert, pupils (volunteers) from the local school read out the names of the 600 Jewish children from Belchatow who were murdered in the Holocaust.

After the concert, member of the group lit candles in the shape of a Star of David in front of the commemoration plaque.

Visit to Jewish cemetery in Lodz, including viewing the remains of the matzevot (tombstones) from Belchatow.

The final event was a visit to the Radegast Station museum from where the trains from the ghetto Lodz departed to Auschwitz and Chelmno.