Ready For Poland -Maria Wik

My mother and I in Switzerland from this past summer.

My name is Maria Wik, and I am currently a sophomore at Iona College. I’m studying Mass Communications with a focus in Public Relations. Traveling has always been a passion of mine. I went on my first European adventure when I was only 7. From then on out I have been pulled to travel and explore new places, experience new cultures and learn about the local history.  I find history to be quite fascinating because even the events of yesterday build the foundations to the events to come tomorrow.

 I come from a family with mixed nationalities and religions, for example my father’s mother is Jewish and I am Catholic. Since the first time I learned about the Shoah, more commonly known as the Holocaust, I wanted to know more.  With this being said, it only seems right for myself to have such a strong desire to go to a concentration camp and fully immerse myself in the history and culture of not only the camp but also the local culture.

When I tell people I am spending my spring break in Auschwitz, I get two types of responses. There is one response that is just the confused stare followed by “That will be fun.”, while on the other hand there are the people who ask questions and talk about how life changing this will be. I still find myself in disbelief that I am leaving in 3 days. Everything I’ve heard, read and watched will now be right in front of me, it will all be real. In class the other day we were talking about things we are worried about and the most common response was just that, ‘it will be real’. The things we’ve watched in the movies will no longer be just anther Hollywood exaggeration; it will be show stopping real.

           

I find myself with so many emotions. I am experiencing excitement and dread, eagerness to learn but also fear for the brutal truth. At the end of the day, however, I could not be happier to be going. I will be surrounded by a group of friends who are just as passionate about this as I am.  I hope that in the next two weeks I get answers to the questions I have been asking my whole life.