My great-great-grandfather, Lejb Myszkowski, was born in Przerosl,
Poland, in 1827. His grandson, my grandfather Henry Mishkoff (for whom I am named), was born
in Grajewo, Poland in 1881 and emigrated to the United States in 1904.
In October of 1999, I traveled to Poland to visit Przerosl, Grajewo,
and other places where my ancestors and their families lived.
This website is a pictorial diary of that journey.
October 3, 1999: Warsaw
Including The Sheraton and The Synagogue. (And The Pizza Hut.) A nice warm
sunny day, great for outdoor photography – but I was feeling pretty
jet-lagged, so I took only a few photos. I'll make up for it tomorrow...
October 4, 1999: Warsaw
Basically, the first five walking tours in the "Traces of Jewish Presence"
section of A Guide to Jewish Warsaw from Our
Roots. Unfortunately, it's been overcast all day, so the photos are
somewhat dark.
October 5, 1999: Warsaw to Bialystok
Featuring Wegrow, Treblinka, Zambrow, and my hotel room in Bialystok.
It's been another gray day, this one with some actual rain – although the
worst of the rain held off until after we started to walk back to the parking lot at
Treblinka, just a few minutes after I had taken my last photo there.
October 6, 1999: Bialystok to Suwalki
Today's sites include Tykocin, Trzcianne, Grajewo, Sejny, and Suwalki.
An even grayer and rainier day than yesterday – and tomorrow, the
last day of my guided tour, is supposed to be even worse.
October 7, 1999: Suwalki to Warsaw
Just to be consistent, today (the last day of my three-day guided tour of
north-eastern Poland) has been cold and rainy. So in today's cold rain,
we visited Suwalki, Wodzilki, Przerosl, Bogusze, Szczuczyn, and Lomza.
October 8, 1999: Warsaw
Nice day – chilly, but sunny and dry – but I'm too tired to
really take advantage of it. Just a light day of typical tourist stuff, and
just a few photos.
October 9, 1999: Krakow
In Krakow today, it's... cold, gray, and wet (for a change). Today's tour
basically follows the walking tour of Kasimierz in the "Traces of Jewish
Presence" section of A Guide to Jewish Cracow from
Our Roots.
October 10, 1999: Krakow and Auschwitz
The weather keeps getting worse. Today I began in Krakow
in the morning, traveled to Auschwitz midday, and returned to Krakow late in
the afternoon.
October 11, 1999: Krakow
Today in Krakow it's been a lot warmer than it was yesterday. But just to be
consistent, it's still been gray, rainy, and generally dismal. Today's photos
document my search for the Myszkowski Chapel. (I'm a Myszkowski, although
it's highly unlikely that I'm in any way related to the family honored in the
Chapel.)
October 12, 1999: Warsaw
Uh-oh, the sun's shining, must be time to go home...
