November 3rd

Here in Poland they really don't celebrate Halloween. They instead celebrate All Saints Day. It is probably the 3rd most important Holiday here besides Christmas and Easter. People will travel throughout the country to the site where their parents or grandparents are buried. People will buy lanterns that they light and put on the tombstone of their deceased loved ones. Not wanting to miss out on all of the fun, my family bought a lantern at our local supermarket and we went to a cemetery that is about 50 meters from our house. This cemetery is special because it is full of the people died at the defense of the Post office in 1939 when Germany first began attacking Poland. It was 56 post workers against more than 200 German soldiers and the Poles repelled the attack not once but twice and the battle went on for more than 15 hours. After the Germans pumped gasoline into the Post office and 3 workers burned alive the rest of the workers surrendered. When they went outside the German army captured them and shot them against the nearest wall. This battle was one of the first of World War II. I have attached some pictures that i took of the graveyard. Next Tuesday my family is going to Berlin, Germany for the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down so that will be very exciting.