Sisi Melchiorre at Warsaw's Jan Karski Bench (photo by Wanda Urbanska)
Loyola University Chicago junior Ersilia "Sisi" Melchiorre had never heard of Jan Karski until an announcement for a human rights symposium to be held in Torun, Poland caught her eye.
The 21-year-old classical studies major, who is spending a year at the John Felice Center in Rome, said she had learned nothing about Polish history or Poland's role during World War II at school in the US.
She and a group of 11 other students traveled to Poland on October 4 for a week sponsored by the John Felice Rome Center and Loyola JFRC alumni John Kurowski and Leonard Slotkowski. The tour included briefings by scholars and a VIP tour of Krakow, Torun and Warsaw, including visits to the Rising 44 Museum and the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, where the students posed at the new Karski bench.
In preparation for her first trip to Poland, Melchiorre read Story of a Secret State, which was donated to the Rome Center by JKEF Advisory Board member Leonard Slotkowski.
"I find the book inspiring," said Melchiorre, who traces roots on her mother's side to Poland. She says that the presentations about Karski and his mission at Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun were incredibly moving, especially remarks by JKEF board members Ewa Wierzynska of the Polish History Museum and Bozena Nowicka McLees, who is on the faculty of Loyola's Polish Studies Department.
Karski's book and the presentations opened her eyes about Poland and its fascinating thousand-year history.
"That the Polish language and culture were able to survive, she says, "means that they were meant to be here. What I learned makes me proud to be Polish."
Melchiorre cited as future goals traveling throughout Poland and learning the language. "I love Poland."
"Secretly," she confessed, "I might just love it more than Rome."
