It is only when one lays eyes upon a place where the Nazis
engaged in the extermination of Jews can they truly comprehend the realness of
the events that took place in Europe between 1939 and 1945. As we arrived at
Tereisinstadt, a former ghetto/camp located in the north of the Czech Republic,
we were greeted by an enormous cemetery overlooked by a huge magen david,
forcing an immediate recognition of the atrocities committed to our people on
the very ground on which we stood. A number of the graves were not even marked
with names. We entered the ‘small fortress,’ a former Nazi control centre of
the area where we watched a short propaganda film detailing life in the
Tereisin ghetto as the Nazis wanted outsiders to view it. We explored further
and were shown to barracks where prisoners of the Gestapo were held, not
exclusively Jews, we entered rooms smaller than some of our individual bedrooms
and were informed that these barracks were known to have held roughly 100
prisoners at any one time.
We made our way around the former ghetto, in which life
bafflingly continues to go on as though nothing happened, stopping at various
sites and museums with significance to the Jewish narrative of Tereisin which were
scattered all through the current town. I simply could not comprehend how one
can live on land knowing that such disgusting acts of inhumane indecency had taken
place there. Visiting museums around Tereisin we gradually filled in knowledge
about the history and fate of the Jews who had lived in this area, as well as
their activities and lifestyle during the war years. It was very refreshing to
see an emphasis placed on LIFE within the ghetto notably as cultural
undertakings such as art, theatre, literature and music to name a few, rather
than just a depressing focus upon the grim fate which most eventually received.
The living space of Jews during this time was simply
deplorable, visiting a recreation of their conditions reinforced the harsh
reality that Jews at this time were simply viewed as ‘untermenschen,’ to use
the German, or ‘subhuman.’ Hundreds were packed into tiny rooms, you were lucky
to have a bed as many resided on wooden floors in an area in which temperatures
could be known to pass freezing; if someone died then it was your lucky day as
you were in with a shot of securing a bed, this was the harsh reality. We
continued touring around on foot until we reached the most harrowing site of
all in the entire Tereisin area, the crematorium. Used by the Nazis to dispose
of Jews who had perished in the ghetto, it was simply appalling to think that
we were standing in a place where Nazis would inspect and cremate Jewish
corpses and then shove them into small wooden boxes.
Outside the crematorium we conducted a ceremony of our own
to honour the memory of those Jews who had spent time in Tereisinstadt. It
features testimonies, poems, candle lighting as well as the recitation of the
ode usually preserved for ANZAC Day. This inclusion ensured the consideration
of nationality as well as religion when thinking of these historical events; as
well as this, it got me thinking of the confusion that would have been caused
for the assimilated Jews of the time some of whom who would perhaps have
considered themselves primarily German or Polish or Czech or any other
nationality rather than Jewish, as to why they were to be singled out for
prosecution rather than any other citizen.
Following the ceremony we ate a packed kosher lunch and
headed off to Krakow where we were to spend the night.
Something else really caught my attention today; throughout
the day we passed various groups of other religions and nationalities, many of
whom it seemed simply did not understand the gravity of where they were. Many
walked past us, a group where many of the boys were wearing kippot, and
continued as if nothing was different, chuckling and laughing to their friends.
This peaked my interest, is this disconnection from the reality of the
atrocities committed on the ground on which we stood due to a difference in
culture? A lack of education? An immaturity? Or is it simply that we are
sensitive to and connect largely to the events of the holocaust due to the fact
that it directly effects our family heritage and lineage? This is a question
which I could not answer, however I do depart with this final thought: in my
opinion, there is no individual nor group in any society that cannot benefit
from the lessons of the holocaust, it is only from seeing humans at their
lowest point can one truly be thankful for the world in which we live today and
not squander the freedoms which we possess.
Jake
