Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Discovering Izbica, Poland

One reason I love reading is because books show me places in the world that I had never heard of, or places that only existed at a time long before I came to existence. Through this book I am currently reading, I am coming to learn about this very little town in Poland, Izbica. Today, this little town has a population of 1,933. Once upon a time, it had a population of 6000, mostly Jews. The original Jewish inhabitants were all wiped out during the Holocaust. There aren't many pictures about Izbica that one can find on the internet because this is not a popular tourist spot. Izbica is just a quiet tiny town in Poland that has not much excitement going on. It's a town that seems to have nothing worth for people to talk about. Look at the following picture though, it made me wonder how much Jewish blood flew into this peaceful river decades ago.



Izbica nowadays is almost forgotten by the world because my generation, which grew up in the era of abundance, peace and economic prosperity have come to pay more attention to Hollywood gossip than history. We, as a new generation of this world's keepers and inhibitants, have chosen to ignore the past. But through this book I tumbled upon, (I'm glad I did) I will always remember Izbica, and the many innocent lives which were exterminated in the most chilling atrocity in human history, the millions of muders which had been ignored and forgotten by most of the world. Before I ever get angry with my family or friends again, I will always remember Izbica, where families and friends were torn apart by the brutality of wars and organized massacres. I will always remember how lucky I am when I remember Izbica.

Cick here to read my review of this book and participate in our book discussions with my fellow readers of this book.

1 comment:

April said...

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog - Cafe of Dreams today! What a wonderful blog you have here!! I completely agree that one of the greatest things about books is the ability to go places, meet people and see things we may never have the chance to in our day to day "real life"!!

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