A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 29 July 2025 - T for WWII history, wine and orange nails

 

Hello lovely girls, How are you all? I'm writing this on Sunday evening with some lively worship music playing on my TV. Usually I'd write on Monday but tomorrow (Monday) I'm driving to the coast to pick up another son and his family. Woohoo! I'm excited! They had booked flights to come before but then Civid hit and the flights were cancelled. Somehow they never got round to coming again. Now it's happening.

My postcard today is not a happy one. My brother-in-law and his wife went to Kracow in Poland and one of the things they did was visit  Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp. I asked him to send me a postcard and here it is:

The info on the card reads: "A warning notice outside the camp. Beyond this point, the SS opened fire without warning." 

The former concentration camp is now a museum, so that nobody will forget what happened there.

I assume you all know about Auschwitz, but I'll just quote what the Internet says: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a museum on the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland. The site includes the main concentration camp at Auschwitz I and the remains of the concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Wikipedia

A lot of Dutch people died in the camps. Luckily in my family nobody died although I have one auntie who went to Teresienstadt and survived. She was only a girl and she got separated from her sister. It must have been such a traumatic experience. She never talked about it, although in later life she wrote a book, which I have. She died a few years back.

The stamps are interesting:

The one on the right celebrates the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the National Education Commission. 

On October 14, 1773, on the initiative of King StanislawAugust Poniatowski, a national education committee was established.

Wikipedia writes: Born into wealthy Polish aristocracy, Poniatowski arrived as a diplomat at the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1755 at the age of 22^[1] and became intimately involved with the future empress Catherine the Great. (image below)

With her aid, he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Sejm in September 1764 following the death of Augustus III. Contrary to expectations, Poniatowski attempted to reform and strengthen the large but ailing Commonwealth. His efforts were met with external opposition from neighbouring Prussia, Russia and Austria, all committed to keeping the Commonwealth weak. From within he was opposed by conservative interests, which saw the reforms as a threat to their traditional liberties and privileges granted centuries earlier.

A controversial figure in Poland's history, he is viewed with ambivalence as a brave and skillful statesman by some and as an overly hesitant coward by others, and even as a traitor. He is criticized primarily for his failure to resolutely stand against opposing forces and prevent the partitions, which led to the destruction of the Polish state. On the other hand, he is remembered as a great patron of arts and sciences who laid the foundation for the Commission of National Education, the first institution of its kind in the world, the Great Sejm of 1788–1792, which led to the Constitution of 3 May 1791 and as a sponsor of many architectural landmarks.

The other stamp is an Easter stamp. I looked up the word Wielkanoc (It means Easter).

What has happening at this end? I have taken my Italian son to the airport, after having spent two nights with them in a hotel near the airport. As today we have theT-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard, I will show you a drink:

This was my breakfast at the hotel. There was an interesting buffet but I stick to my Andalusian toast and tomatoes when I'm away from home.

When my son and family went to spend a day in Malaga, I stayed in the hotel (peace and quiet) and then had lunch in a nearby cafe. 

It was a glass of white wine and a tapa of squid and bread.

After they had gone home, I had a nail appointment the following evening. I went for orange this time.

I'll leave you with a photo of my cat Ronnie who is peacefully asleep next to me on the sofa.

That's it from me today. I don't know how much time I'll have to visit you all, but I'll do my best.

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca