March of the Living 1999 Diary
April 16, 5:25 PM
I realize this may sound small and insignificant compared to the other things I’ve written in this diary, but it needs to be said: if you bring an electric razor, be very sure you’re bringing the right converter! Bring both 2 and 3 pronged converters. My razor hasn’t worked the whole time I’ve been here. We’re staying at the same hotel for the whole time in Israel. If it doesn’t work there, then I have to wear pants the entire time and I can’t swim. (I don’t want to ask someone else for their razor. Besides, strange as it may seem, I’ve never learned to shave my legs with anything but an electric shaver. [Note: I learned as soon as I got back!]) So I hope it works in Israel.
Okay, something I noticed today: I saw nuns today. I’ve never seen any actual nuns in habits before. It made me think a little about how much I don’t know about other religions, about how much I’ve been kept isolated. I don’t see any harm in learning about religious diversity, but then again, I like ideas in Wicca and Buddhism.
Natalie also pointed something out: we haven’t seen any, not one black person (okay, I’m not being politically correct. Sue me.) the whole time we’ve been here. I wonder if any live in Poland at all, and if they do, if there would be people yelling at them. They can’t hide their skin if they want to.
After we left the market, I realized that we’d kind of been brainwashed here in Poland on the March. We’ve been told, again and again, about how we wouldn’t buy anything in Poland. I wonder why. I mean, there were also Poles who helped hide Jews. And its not like the Poles ran the camps. They were invaded. There were Poles in the camps too! I mean, if we were in Germany, I could certainly understand if people didn’t want to buy anything. But what was so terrible about the Polish people? Someone told me that in a store they went to, there were the exaggerated Jewish dolls, the ones that portray the Jews as the Nazis did in World War 2. I didn’t see, so I wouldn’t know and I won’t say it’s not true. But there are skinheads and KKK groups in Canada, too. I would have liked to have time to go and see the little part of Poland. Not to have it explained to me, that’s been done. I mean, I want to go look at it and come to my own conclusions about the people. Yes, I may decide that the Poles are terrible people and hate Jews, but at least I’ll have realized it on my own. Maybe I’d find that most people don’t really care one way or the other. They don’t particularly like the Jews, but they don’t hate us either. Except when we come and flaunt it, maybe. I don’t know. It feels a little like brainwashing (if you can actually realize you’re being brainwashed). Maybe I notice because I’m a little apart from everyone, slightly more objective. But it seems like we’re undergoing the opposite of anti-Semitic (pro-Semitic, pro-Jewish?) brainwashing. I don’t like having ideas forced down my throat, thank you very much. I’ll make my own opinions.
Considering,
Julie
