Returning to Poland decades after my parents were forced to flee was a journey fraught with emotion and discovery. Their escape was intertwined with the brutal upheavals of World War II and the haunting aftermath that uprooted millions. Walking through the streets they once called home, I encountered a landscape both familiar and foreign. Beneath the modern veneer lay the scars of displacement-abandoned synagogues, dilapidated Jewish cemeteries, and plaques commemorating lost communities. Each site prompted reflection on a legacy marked by survival and loss, a narrative repeated in many families but deeply personal to mine.

This return ignited a profound connection to my Polish citizenship, transforming it from a legal status into a bridge between past and present. Embracing this heritage revealed the complex layers of…