Pope John Paul II

Today was our second day here in Poland. After a good night’s sleep, I felt great and ready to take on the day! We ate a delicious breakfast and then went off on the bus to drive to Wadowice. While at Wadowice we walked around the town center and saw where Pope John Paul II went to school. Across the street was where Rudolph Hesler, the commander of Auschwitz, had his trial. When entering the museum we received a tour of Pope John Paul II house which is of course now a museum. 

I learned a lot on the tour about Pope like his early childhood and his difficult life. Karol (the pope’s real name) mother, father, and older brother all lived in this nice apartment right next to the Basilica. Across from the apartment there was a sun dial with the words “Time flies, eternity awaits.” Sadly, the Pope lost his Mother before receiving his first communion at the age of 8. His mom died giving child birth. Mundek, his older brother was 14 years older died 3 ½ years later working as a physician, he was infected with scarlet fever. At a young age Pope John Paul II had only one member of his immediate family left, his father. Throughout the museum we learned about the Pope’s love of football instilled by his brother (whom was quite good!) Additionally, I learned about the Pope’s dream of actually becoming an actor. Pope John Paul II was the first ever Polish Pope, and only Polish pope until this day. The museum has a room dedicated to the terrorist trying to kill Pope John Paul II and even has the gun that was used in the attempt murder. The Pope attributes the Blessed Mary for saving him, and apparently if the bullet moved even a centimeter, he would have died. I loved the photo of the Pope visiting the person who tried to kill him. The Pope visited him in jail just to say he forgave him. 

I also loved finding out that he is the most traveled pope! In the museum there is gravel/dirt from all the countries he has visited because he is always photographed kissing the ground the second he gets off the place. Lastly, my favorite part of the museum was reading the letters people wrote to the Pope in all the different languages. I did my best to translate my Italian letters and naturally flocked to the letters in English. These people asking the pope to pray for their family members, for strength, food, shelter, hope. This part resonated with me because these voices from people who asked the Pope to keep them in their prayers, had a lot of similar requests I, or a friend might have. After we ate lunch and I had a 7 zlotys hot chocolate which in my opinion was the best hot chocolate I've ever had. After we attended Palm Sunday at the Basilica.  

My favorite part was Dr. Rozensher’s talk by far. Having Dr. Rozensher as my professor I’m used to seeing her friendly face, during class hours. Not that I don’t expect professors not to have lives out of school, I suppose I just didn’t put much thought into her life story. Walking on the first day she mentioned to me that her husband was actually born in Krakow. Crazy, I thought, he must have family members who saw the German occupation. Today, when sitting down around the table I had no idea what Dr. R was about to tell us, and I can say it will definitely be a memory in my life of absolute amazement. Dr. Rozensher’s mother in-law lived through the Holocaust and was the only one of her family members to survive This woman has such an incredible, heroic life she led. I could go into detail of all the trials Dr. Rozensher’s mother in law (Genya) went through. The hardships of losing her family, starving, scared, alone and still having the fight to live. I question myself if I would have had the strength, intelligence, and even luck to survive during that time period. I will always remember vividly the end of the story of Genya being rounded up with a Catholic family she was living with. And one of the daughters said to her “Your fate is ours.”