Today I visited my father's old high school in Nowy Sacz, Poland. He attended from 1928-36. We (I was accompanied by two officials from the U.S. consulate in Krakow) were greeted at the front entrance by a whole delegation with flowers including the headmaster, the head of the student body and the official photographer of the city of Nowy Sacz. The school is well maintained and the students evidently well traveled. They send groups to the United States every year and also to Israel. The teachers also pass courses on teaching the Holocaust at Yad Vashem. The corridors are decorated with large photos of students in various parts of the world.
I was taken to an English class and asked to say a few words. I spoke about how my father attended this school and had good memories and about what had happened to our family and to the Jews of Nowy Sacz in general. They listened attentively and seemed interested.
My hosts showed me the original school banner, kept hidden during the Second World War and lately refurbished in all its original glory.
The last stop was the headmaster's office where they gave me photocopies of my father's graduation certificate and also a report card containing all his grades from the final examination in 1936. Apparently, he was very good in German and only fair in mathematics. I became a little emotional holding these documents in my hands. We have so little from my father's youth -- a couple of snapshots and that's about it -- so these documents are precious. In return, I gave them a copy of "Guarded by Angels."

From march 30 through April 4, I will be doing a speaking tour in Poland at the invitation of the U.S. embassy. For more of my program, see http://poland.usembassy.gov/.

Among the stops is Nowy Sacz, the town where my father grew up. I will be speaking at a college attached to the highs school he attended, Bolesława Chrobrego.

What a strange turn of fate. He fled the town in 1939 shortly after the Nazis invaded. His parents and younger brother were herded into a ghetoo and eventually transported to die in an extermination camp. And now, 69 years later, I return to lecture the students about the state of U.S. journalism.