Trip Summary
This is a trip that every Jew must take. It is highly emotional, but extremely informative in helping you to understand the heritage and plight of the Ashkenazi Jews and the impact on all Jews of Europe. We visited one-horse towns, Shtetls, small villages, towns, small cities, and big cities. We saw fishing villages on the Nemenus, Naris, and Styr. We saw mountain towns, farming communities, industrial cities, and administrative, cultural and trading capitals. In all we visited 10 places in Ukraine, 19 in Lithuania, and 4 in Poland. I started out my planing in an attempt to understand where my ancestors lived, worked, and died. They all came to the US between 1897 and 1911. So, they avoided both World Wars. But, they didn’t, the impacts were felt by their cousins, neighbors, and friends. As an example, My 2nd GG Grandfather in Kremenets Ukraine had 2 brothers, they had 22 children only 4 families escaped the holocaust. The rest of their decendents perished in the woods in a ...