Jacob and I walking the streets of Krakow, in the Old Jewish district (now Bohemian quarter) called Kazimierz.

I’m very proud to have had the opportunity to study at one of the oldest (established in 1364) and most prestigious universities in Europe- Jagiellonian University in Krakow. There, I spent months studying a topic near and dear to my heart: Polish history with a concentration in anti-Semitism and the holocaust.

Though my family is not Jewish, both sets of my grandparents were survivors of the holocaust. My grandma Stella hid 34 jews under her floor boards.

The Nazis killed Poles of any religion and Jews alike. My grandma Stella was lined up on a wall by a firing squad. She had done nothing wrong, but she was Polish. As the Nazis counted down to fire, a general yelled “HALT!” and the they put down their guns. The general told my grandma to step out of line and go home. The general was wounded weeks before, and my grandmother had cleaned his wounds and nursed him back to health for a couple of days until he got back on his feet. He recognized her and saved her life. Seconds later, the nazis proceeded to kill everyone in line.

During the war she would have to go down to the river to pick up a block of ice for her fridge. When she unwrapped the block, she found that it had an odd murky dark color. She continued to chip away at it and found fragments of a human head.

My grandfather Alex was forced onto a concentration camp train twice for not having proper document of birth. (In those days, especially living on a farm, people didn’t have the means to obtain such documents.) Twice he escaped through the floor boards of the train. He lives to this day.

My grandma Irena went to Germany to work at the age of 16. When she traveled back home for the summer, she found her whole family massacred in her home, with her youngest brother hanging out the window.

I’ve decided to tell you these few stories openly today in light of one of yet another historic tragedy in Poland’s long history. As a country, Poland has suffered greatly through wars, evil communism, the murdering of her elite, but she never backed down.. and in the end always prospered.

My friend Vojtek, who I studied with in Krakow (now a Canadian actor) said it well:

“If you ever questioned why Polish people make it their duty to let everyone around them know who they are and where they come from, it’s because there were many attempts to wipe us out, by destroying our history, language and murdering our intellectual elite as we posed a threat to status qua of the countries around us, by bringing light to their secrets, and as we pushed for religious tolerance and multiculturalism since the 1500’s.”