I have had an occasional interest, but no great and burning desire, to visit Poland to see the cities where my parents lived before the war. I am not sure why. Perhaps the images in my mind from the stories I have been told and pictures that I have seen is sufficient. Perhaps I realize that with the exception of the re-enactment in the movie "Schindler's List" (for my father's Cracow) and the PBS documentary "The Lodz Ghetto" (my mother's city), I will never be able to see and experience the cities as my parents knew them.
I have seen the films of Auschwitz, the death camp where my mother was incarcerated, and I am not sure whether I want to (or need to) visit the museum that stands there now.
So I have many thoughts about our up-coming trip to Prague. We are going with a small group and the trip is dedicated to glass and music, more-specifically, music that has been uncovered from the Terezin concentration camp outside of Prague. Music and glass go straight to my heart and have the capability to tear at my emotions.
If it were not for the unique combination of glass and music, I am not sure whether I would have overcome my disillusion about going back (funny, I am not really “going back” am I?) to Eastern Europe. Perhaps this trip will answer some of my questions and pave the way for the overdue trips to Cracow and Lodz.