Oswiecim

3Jan2020Blog post, My Polish WisniaAuschwitz, Auschwitz75, gigs, holocaust, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Krakow, My Polish Wisnia, Oswiecim, Poland, survivor, tour, travel, Warsaw

Return to Poland for Auschwitz 75 – Poland Part III Prelude

AUSCHWITZ 75

Avi Wisnia and his grandfather, David S. Wisnia – cantor and Auschwitz survivor, return to Poland to commemorate 75 years since the Holocaust; together, they will visit Warsaw, Krakow, and the site of Auschwitz itself; the trip will also feature programs and concert events led by David and Avi Wisnia, with stories about the Holocaust and music that they will perform together. Follow their journey at #MyPolishWisnia

Avi Wisnia and David Wisnia perform at the
POLIN MUSEUM in Warsaw on January 24 (INFO)

Read about my grandfather’s incredible story and his memoir: www.OneVoiceTwoLives.com

Watch David Wisnia sing at the 70th Anniversary International Auschwitz Commemoration in Poland: http://youtu.be/ONGl0sML5OY

BuzzFeed Video ‘How I Survived The Holocaust’: https://youtu.be/pcc8xCZ35KI

#MyPolishWisnia

22Aug2017Blog post, My Polish WisniaAuschwitz, Buzzfeed, David Wisnia, holocaust, My Polish Wisnia, One Voice Two Lives, Oswiecim, Poland, survivor, video

BuzzFeed Feature Video

My grandfather David S. Wisnia has a remarkable voice, and he uses it to tell his remarkable story. Many thanks to BuzzFeed for producing this video and coming to Pennsylvania to record him singing. The video also features us performing together, with a song my grandfather composed in the Auschwitz concentration camp, which I recently translated into English.

I have learned so much from my grandfather; and though he didn’t speak about his Holocaust experience for many many years, I’m so grateful that he now wants to share his story with the world. Enjoy the music, and listen to this story of survival.

>Read my grandfather’s incredible story and purchase his memoir: www.OneVoiceTwoLives.com

>Read my blog about our recent travels in Poland: #MyPolishWisnia

Avi Wisnia Coffee Hotel Galicja Oswiecim

15Nov2015Blog post, My Polish WisniaAuschwitz, Auschwitz70, Birkenau, education, holocaust, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews, My Polish Wisnia, Oswiecim, Poland, survivor, tour, travel

Poland Part II Day 7.3

My Polish Wisnia‬ turned the camera on me.

It was our last night here in Oświęcim. We got back to Hotel Galicja just as another family was checking in. In just a few hours, we would leave for Krakow, and then Vienna, then New York, then Philadelphia. It was going to be a full day of travel, and it had already been one of the most intense days we have had here. Visiting Auschwitz requires a lot of walking, a lot of standing. But the most draining are the memories.

We had earned our coffee, and my grandfather deserved some room service (that would be me). As he was taking my picture in the doorway of our room, the family that had just checked in downstairs came lumbering down our hall, speaking some other language, dragging their luggage behind them. My grandfather, naturally, poked his head out into the hallway. Where are you from? What language is this? The teenage daughter answered us. She was the only member of her family that spoke English, her parents and her younger brother only spoke Hungarian and did not understand. “Hungarian! You know, I know a song in Hungarian…” and my grandfather launched into some Hungarian tune, which I had never heard him sing before. So, I guess, add Hungarian to his list of languages. And then the entire family joined him, singing in the hallway. This was an apparently popular old Hungarian song.

The family looked tired. We were tired too. But upon meeting new people, suddenly my grandfather wasn’t tired anymore. Or he just forgot he was tired. When the family found out my grandfather was a survivor of the concentration camp, their eyes went wide, and they forgot they were tired too.

The daughter explained that they had just arrived to spend a few days visiting the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. She then translated for her family as my grandfather ran through his history, from growing up outside Warsaw, to the violence he experienced in the Warsaw ghetto, to ending up in this place, a prisoner for over two and a half years. We just got back from visiting the barracks where he slept as a prisoner of Birkenau. The girl looked a little timid. “And what is the difference between Auschwitz and Birkenau?”

A year ago, I would have asked the same question. Because of my travels with my grandfather, I have gotten to know many more survivors and their stories. I have gotten to see so much of Auschwitz and hear experts talk about its history and legacy. I have gotten to understand more and more what my grandfather experienced. The girl’s question made me realize just how much of an education I have received.

Her question was so innocent, and my grandfather answered it without hesitation. They certainly had a lot to learn. Coming to Auschwitz and speaking to a survivor, that is the best way to learn.

#‎MyPolishWisnia

Oswiecim Polish original doc David Wisnia song

12Nov2015Blog post, My Polish WisniaAuschwitz, Birkenau, holocaust, My Polish Wisnia, Oswiecim, Poland, survivor, tour, travel

Poland Part II Day 7.2

Singing saved my grandfather’s life. It is how he survived his time in Auschwitz. He would entertain the guards with songs like ‘Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,’ and so became a sort of privileged prisoner in the camp, perhaps somewhat less expendable. During his time as prisoner, he actually composed a song – Oświęcim, a parody of life in Auschwitz-Birkenau, based on the name of the town where the concentration camp sits. Towards the end of the war, the night before the Germans evacuated every remaining prisoner out of Birkenau on a Death March, my grandfather wrote out his song and gave the paper to a fellow prisoner, Szaja, as a gift. They would meet again 20 years later in Israel as free men, as survivors, and Szaja would hand him back that very same paper. This song is now on display at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC (view it HERE).

My grandfather taught me his song, Oświęcim, and I will perform it with him for the first time, here in Poland.

After dinner, they invited me to perform some entertainment for the attendees of the conference.

We had gathered at the Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim, the town where Auschwitz was, and where it still is. We met wonderful people who grew up here, who have roots here. As a prisoner, my grandfather knew nothing of this town. All he knew was Auschwitz. Yet, he tells me that in his circles, the prisoners never knew this German word Auschwitz – they referred to the place in Polish based on where it was located, Oświęcim. Today, Oświęcim is a town with stores, schools, families, life. Like everything touched by the Holocaust, Oświęcim carries forward with it a complicated legacy.

Later in the evening, my grandfather and I performed his song, Oświęcim, his song that he wrote as a prisoner of Auschwitz.

I cannot describe to you what it felt like to perform here. I cannot put it into words. I don’t even know what to call it.

#MyPolishWisnia

David Wisnia Auschwitz Conference Holocaust

8Nov2015Blog post, My Polish WisniaAuschwitz, Auschwitz70, Birkenau, food, holocaust, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, My Polish Wisnia, Oswiecim, Poland, Polish, survivor, tour, travel

Poland Part II Day 5.2

What does it take to tell your story of survival, to retell and relive those memories? Does it get easier or harder with each visit?

It has become more and more clear to me just how much my grandfather distanced himself from what happened, how he separated and blocked out this earlier part of his life, and how he protected his family from any trauma that he endured. I’m grateful to be able to accompany him as he comes back to Auschwitz, to tell his story. I’m grateful for the platform he is given. He is doing the world a service. The living testimony of survivors is the most important way to understand what happened here.

My grandfather is the strongest human being I know.

We drove back in to Birkenau as the sun was setting. The opening event of the conference would be a panel featuring 5 survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, including my grandfather. The topic: The Impact of the Camp Experience on Post-War Life. I’ve heard him speak many times now in recent years. But something happened on the way in to the panel. We pulled up to one of the prison buildings known as the Sauna, where prisoner clothing was sent for cleaning and delousing. We were walking towards one of the entrances, as my grandfather was remarking about a certain tree. He remembered that tree. We turned a corner. Someone opened a certain side door to the building. And my grandfather stopped cold.

He told the room just a few moments later: “As a prisoner of the camp, I worked exactly in this room for one and a half years. When we moved from the old sauna, I worked here until the evacuation. Somewhere at the back was an office, where I worked. I have been here a few times after the war, but never exactly entered this area. I could not bear it, and today I started crying.
I cried for the first time in 70 years.”

[Photo & Quote courtesy of The Auschwitz Museum. Read more about the panel, the survivors’ testimony, and the conference: HERE]

Everything in my family always involves The Meal. Major celebrations revolve around dinner. Family reunions are meal plans with unspecified activities in between, usually snacks. It’s pretty typical to discuss where we are having our next meal while we are eating our current one. So ending the day gathered around the dinner table with all of the participants of the conference felt comfortable and necessary.

Besides, my grandfather is in his prime around people. He is never not happy to meet someone. He is a man who truly celebrates being in the presence of others. He is The Grand Master Schmoozer. After a day of intensity, the company of family, friends, strangers who become friends, is important. Even now, spending time in Auschwitz, revisiting this history, we are able to laugh and joke and relax. Just take your cues from my grandfather. Life goes on.

I only know how to say 3 things in Polish. The first thing is: Nie mówią po polsku = I don’t speak Polish. The second thing is a phrase my grandfather taught me that I’d rather not repeat here. And the third is very important, so important that I made sure to know it and commit it to memory before i left: smażony kurczak. It’s not really a traditional Polish dish, but you’d be surprised how much smażony kurczak can be found in Poland, when it’s the only thing you can ask for.

#MyPolishWisnia