My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

in factories, foundries and mines. We spent an entire day there. We
will never be able to eradicate from our minds the part of the
museum where we saw, with our own eyes, the thousand of shoes,
hair, cloths and other objects from children who had been
exterminated. How sad that such genocide could have taken place.
Although I always wanted to see Auschwitz, my wife and I could
not sleep that night, thinking of the horror those human beings
were subjected to, ending up in the gas chambers. It is difficult to
express in words what we had witnessed!
From Auschwitz, we travelled to visit the Jasna Gora Sanctuary in
Czestochowa, frequently referred as the Spiritual Capital of Poland
and the Shrine of the Black Madonna, Poland’s most sacred icon.
The miracle-performing painting displays Virgin Mary, clad in
fleur de lis robes pointing at the little Jesus. Her son, holding the
Gospel, is making a blessing gesture. There are numerous miracles
believed to have happened due to the intercessions of the Black
Madonna of Czestochowa. The Sanctuary is visited by millions of
pilgrims each year, from all over the world. It was a long bus trip,
but well worth it.
Former Yugoslavia
For our visit to (former) Yugoslavia, we flew to Dubrovnik, today a
city in Croatia, where we spent 3 nights. We went on a tour to
Split, where we visited the Temple of Jupiter and walked through
the winding streets of the old city. The next morning, we travelled
down the Dalmatian Coast, toward the medieval city of Dubrovnik
and enjoyed breathtaking views of the Adriatic Sea. We took a
short cruise to the city of Korcula, Marco Paulo’s birthplace,
where we explored the streets that lead to Cathedral Square. We
then took a walking tour of Old Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World
Heritage site and visited the Franciscan Monastery, where
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