The Town of Tykocin 

         The day we visited Tykocin, we immersed ourselves into the Shtetl lifestyle. The small huts and shacks looked like they were right out of the movie, “Fiddler on the Roof”. Tykocin, “the town of little people”, came to existence in 1522, when 10 families were granted with the Charter of Rights. This led to the development of a K’hila, and eventually, an economic hub. By the mid-1700’s, about 2,700 Jews lived and thrived in Tykocin. 

        There was a market in the  center of town, with the main economy focusing around the sale of vodka/wine, fish, metals, wool, and clothing. We visited the Beit Kinessit, which at the time was being renovated, and held a minor prayer service inside, (until the Orthodox got upset and we left). We finished our service outside the busses, and learned the fate of the Jews in Tykocin. On August 25th, 1941-when World War II was in full effect, sadly, the Nazis came to round up all the Jews in town. The sadistic Nazis forcefully made the Jews sing, “Hatikva”, before boarding the majority of people into busses driving to the Tykocin Forrest. The rest of the Jews were demanded to run behind the busses. In the forrest, the Jews of Tykocin were lined up, and shot into 3 different mass graves. The people who could not keep up with the busses, were shot and killed as well.  

In order to honor those who lost their lives in Tykocin, we boarded the busses silently, and drove to the forrest. The forrest was scattered with trees higher than the eye can see. There was a faint feeling of death and dismay in the noise of the whistling wind, and the feeling of the cold air hitting my face. 

 

         As a class, we were read stories of individuals who spent there last seconds of life, in the cruel hands of the Nazis, in the forrest. Then, all together, we visited the mass graves. I was unable to fully imagine what the scene could have looked like, with children crying and mothers and fathers in despair. I closed may eyes and prayed for nothing like this to ever happen to any human being ever again. We closed off the trip, with a ceremony in which we were each given a name of an individual from Tykocin, in order to continue their legacy and not let them die in vain. In my opinion, the Tykocin forrest was one the hardest-if not hardest, parts of the trip to Poland.

I leave you now with 2 questions: 

What did you like/dislike about Tykocin?

How did it make you feel?