What My Father Sold
In May 2025, I went to Częstochowa, Poland. Before the war, my father traveled there from Kamyk, a nearby village, to sell souvenirs of the Black Madonna to pilgrims at the Jasna Góra Monastery. His family was Jewish and of modest means; his father was a butcher. He told me about the souvenirs himself.
The crowds still come. At Jasna Góra, I watched people line up patiently and kneel in front of the icon.
I don't know exactly where my father stood. I walked past buildings he might have passed.
Near the monastery, many of the souvenirs were magnets. I was certain my father hadn't sold magnets, so I walked a few blocks and found a small wooden cross with the Black Madonna's image in metal. I bought it.
It sits in my top dresser drawer, next to the Star of David my father often wore on the lapel of his suit jacket.