After a two and half hour bus ride we arrived in Warsaw,
Poland’s capital and the city which was home to Europe’s largest Jewish ghetto
of roughly 500,000 people. Our first stop in the nation’s capital was a Jewish cemetery
which is the resting place of a huge number of Polish Jews from both pre,
during and post WWII. There was something very unique about this cemetery thanks
largely to the individuality of many of the stones which used various symbols
to represent aspect of a person’s life, some were really quite special. We
spoke about some of the cemetery’s residents who had done extraordinary things such
as leaders of various uprisings during the war, Yiddish theatre stars as well
as poets, writers and rabbis. Some even took the time to visit family members
who lay amongst the multitude of plots through which we wandered. The cemetery made
me think about how I wished to be remembered and whether or not I approve of
the concept of touring graves, whether it does justice to an individual’s
memory to be a stop off in the tour of a group of young people who stop to take
a look and perhaps take a photo and then simply move on or not. I simply did
not come to a conclusion, cemetery’s continue to baffle me as to my thoughts on
the existence of an afterlife and my unwillingness to acknowledge that death
could strike anyone I know at any time. A scary thought, especially after
viewing the remnants of lives that were cruelly taken by the Nazis for almost
no reason.
Following lunch we headed to a shule deep in Warsaw where we
had the privilege of being spoken to by the Chief Rabbi of Poland who stunned
most with his charisma and charm through various stories he had picked up in
his time in Poland. It showed most that Rabbi’s aren’t always old men with long
beards and black hats but can rather be people who inspire and captivate an
audience in a youthful and modern way. After the rabbi spoke to us we visited
what is left of Warsaw’s former small ghetto for the Jews. We saw what is left
of the walls which used to mark the borders of the ghetto and were greeted
there by an old man who came out of his house upon hearing our presence. He
brought a book with him, which verified him as a righteous amongst the nations
from Yad Vashem for doing all he could to keep the wall standing, he had us
sign a book which was already filled to the brim with the names and messages of
groups before us he had conversed with. He was truly an inspiring individual
who I’m sure we could have learnt a great deal more from had we spoken Polish,
the language barrier was simply too much. We continued on through the rest of the
small ghetto, taking note of various buildings of significance.
The next day we awoke and headed to Treblinka, a death
factory in which the Nazis liquidated roughly 800,000 Jews in approximately a
year. However, this was not a camp like Auschwitz-Birkenau or Majdanek in which
one could see the destruction, the harrowing sadness which was felt on the
ground on which you stand, thanks to the detonation of the camp and its
evidence by the Germans prior to the end of the war. This made it unbelievable
difficult to connect to the stories and fates of the Jews who had died there as
we just could not picture such horrific events transpiring in a place which was
now so serene and secluded, the air filled with a nice breeze, surrounded by
blue skies and the sounds of birds chirping, it was just unreal to picture the
deaths of so many in such a pleasant place. We discussed the unthinkable
brutality which took place at Treblinka, the eventual perishing place of
300,000 Jews who at one time or another took up residence in the Warsaw ghetto,
as Mark regaled us with testimonials and poems which described such things we
could do nothing other than sit in silence and just listen, take it in as best
we could.
Around the area where the gas chamber once stood now one can
walk through a memorial to the hundreds of Polish communities which were
ravished by the war as well as a memorial to the indiviudals who had fallen.
Only one man gets his own gravestone at Treblinka, Janusz Korczak. The famous
educator who nurtured so many children in and prior to the wartime, whom we
have learnt a great deal about in the last few days. He could have avoided his
gruesome gassing death and escaped the war, but instead he nobly went with his
children to their grizzly deaths; a truly righteous individual. Treblinka doesn’t
have the effects of the other camps purely from visiting it thanks to its
lacking of a visual aspect, it makes me wonder how holocaust remembrance and
education would be today if it weren’t for the well-kept camp at Birkenau and
Majdanek where we, those who survived and are left, can view the horrific sites
our ancestors did and stand strongly and proudly and vow “never again.”
After Treblinka we headed back into Warsaw and toured
the rest of the ghetto, noting especially the events of the famous Warsaw ghetto
uprising led by Mordechai
Anielewicz. We visited the memorial to uprising and multiple other important sites
in the history of the ghetto, meanwhile hearing stories from Mark as to their
significance as well as testimonials of life in the ghetto so that we do not
forget what happened here. We conducted our final ceremony in Poland at Warsaw’s
Rapoport Monument, another of which can be seen at Yad Vashem, in which we
reflected upon our emotional and difficult time in Poland and the lessons learn
from it. We next visited the JCC of Warsaw and discussed its role in the Jewish
community and the current status of Polish Jewry. Finally, after dinner, we
returned to the hotel and engaged in a final reflection session before bedtime.
I would just
like to formally state how much I want to thank my madrichim in Poland (Mark,
Daniella, Oded and Tracey) for their unbelievable emotional and educational
support throughout this challenging trip, without them it would certainly not
have been anywhere near as fulfilling and enriching. I would also like to thank
each and every one of my fellow Aviv participants for being there for me a various
times throughout the trip, whether it was in the crematorium of Tereisinstadt,
at the famous train tracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the gas chamber of
Majdanek or the memorial at Treblinka, you were always there with a hug or a
shoulder whenever I need it. Thank you so much.
Jake
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