Reflections on Majdanek by Sasha Friedman

I believe that “unfathomable,” “unimaginable,” or “incomprehensible” should not be used to describe the Holocaust because these words distance us from the truth. They convey a sense of fakeness. The Holocaust on the other hand is very real and it only made sense to me after visiting Majdanek. Unfathomable gives us the excuse to not learn. If it’s unimaginable why should we think about the death camps or if it’s incomprehensible then why should try to grasp the Holocausts impact? Instead I believe everyone, Jew and gentile alike, should see evidence of the Holocaust first hand and make it real for themselves. They should truly understand that we can never let something like this happen again by making each individual personally responsible for opening their eyes to our current world’s intolerances. Majdanek is one of those places that impacts humanity. Regardless of race, religion, creed, or background the stench of death is understood by all. It has not only changed me as a Jew, but moreover as a member of society.

Holocaust Prayer by Richie Schlozman

I let these tears flow

Because they are not mine to hold back

 

I let them roll down my face

Because they aren’t mine to wipe away.

 

/They are the tears

of every mother and father,

brother and sister,

son and daughter,

Forced through this place

Without time even to cry,

Robbed of even their ability to grieve.

 

Through the gray clouds above Majdanek,

I feel their souls.

Each one fighting to let free their uncried tears.

 

They weigh on my shoulders

Like an unbearable burden.

How can I cry the tears of millions?

 

But they do not weigh on me long.

Instead, they gather under me, support me,

Give me strength.

 

And they have only one request:

Never Again.

 

Never to the hate.

Never to the violence.

Never to the murder.

 

And Never to forget.

 

The sun will never truly shine on Majdanek again.

But the souls of its victims light a torch in the

Hearts of all who pass through it,

All who become witness to the horror there.

 

May it be Your will, Hashem, that all men, Jews

And non-Jews alike, carry this torch. And together,

We shall light the path towards peace. Amen.

Reflections by Alex Sokol

Today is April 27, 2006, it’s only been 3 days since we arrived in
Poland, but it’s already felt like weeks. We have gone to many places that have been etched into world history. Places so infamous that when you hear their names thoughts of death and cruelty come to mind. We have been to Aushwitz-Burkineu, Majdanek, and today we went to the place were Treblinka was. Now it is just a monument with 18,000 erected stones.

When we first arrived in
Krakow, Poland, it was beautiful weather. Sunny and clear skies, you couldn’t ask for a nicer day. After we went threw customs and got our bags we were off to the city of
Krakow where we went to some famous synogauges and learned about the famous Rabbis that were apart of our history and what they had to do with those synogaugs. After that we went to dinner. I was expecting terrible food but to my surprise the food wasn’t that bad. It was a nice chicken dinner. Actully this whole trip has had pretty good food. After dinner we went to an AMAZING memorial ceremony dedicated to the victims of the holocaust. During the program we met a lot of other groups. The group I was most excited to see was the group from
Israel. In that group my friend who I haven’t seen since the summer was in it. I probably spent at least 20 minutes running around looking for her, but I eventually found her, and when I saw her all these happy emotions started pouring threw me. She told me she spent at least 20 minutes looking for me. She was asking everyone if they knew me. I just started laughing and almost crying of happiness. So after that we went back to our hotel in
Krakow and crashed for the night.

            The next we had an early wake up at 5:45 and we left the hotel around 7:00 to started a day that I will never forget and that changed my view on my Judiasm and how I am as a person. So after Breakfast we went of the bus for just a little bit till we arrived at were the
Krakow ghetto used to be. We learned a little bit about the history of the ghetto and then we went to the site of were the concentration camp called Plaszow was. There is nothing left of it except you can see were the mass graves were. After that we were off to see the most infamous place on earth. A place that when you hear its name only thoughts of death and torture come to mind. This place is called
Auschwitz.
Auschwitz is enormous. It is separated into to places
Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Berkineu. We started out at
Auschwitz I. It was between 10 and 11 that we arrived at
Auschwitz I, on April 25^th, 2006, which was also Yom HaShoah, in English it means Holocaust rememberance day.

            The first thing we saw at
Auschwitz I was the gas chamber and cremeetoria. As I walked into it I felt my knees go week. I almost couldn’t hold myself up. You cant prepare yourself to see such things. As we left the gas the chambers we went into different parts of the camp that they have turned into museums. You got to see how the prisoners lived. You saw the bathrooms, living conditions, were the SS lived, and how it was all constructed.
Auschwitz I is huge it stretches for kilometers. After we toured around the camp and learned about it, it was time to start the March of The Living. Nine Thousand Jews from all over the world were there to take the 3 kilometer march from
Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Berkineu. As the march began we walked out the front gate of Auschwitz I that have the worlds that say in German “Arbeit Macht Frei” which means work for freedom in English. When we reached Auschwitz II-Berkineu and hour later and saw how big the camp was, it shocked me the size of it. It stretched for miles on miles. The maginitude of the camp is jaw dropping. I thought to myself how could anyone construct something so big for one purpose, and that was to kill. When the ceremony started many people talked including, Shimon Peres, The head of the
Auschwitz museum, A representative of the Polish president, and the head Rabbi of Israel who was a holocaust survivor. At the end of the ceremony the Israeli national anthem, but also the national anthem of the Jewish people was played, the Hatikvah. When I heard the Hatikvah played I cried. I cried because at that moment I relized how proud I am to be a Jew and how much my Judiasm means to me, and how much this anthem meant to all Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust. We were at
Auschwitz for about 8 hours, but those hours felt like 8 minutes. It was a life changing expierence. After the ceremony we toured Auschwitz II-Berkineu for a few hours and learned how they killed the people who were in the camp. It is the largest cemetery in the world. Close to 2 million people were killed there.

The next day we went to the place I think is the scariest place on earth. This place is called M

Update – Elisa Davis, Jacquie Pener

4/27/06

Hi everyone back home! It’s Elisa Davis and Jacquie Pener. We wanted to tell you about our trip thus far.
Poland is like no place we have ever experienced. So far there has been a lot of emotional trips; from
Auschwitz and Majdanek to the remains of Jewish cemetaries and the March itself. Marching in the footsteps of our ancestors and standing where they stood, gives us mixed feelings. While we are very sad that so many Jews were lost in the Holocaust, we feel proud to be Jewish and alive today. When we left
Kansas, we couldn’t comprehend the experience we would soon face. We’re trying to take everything in, but it’s hard to take it all in at once. It’s good to have each other there by our sides. We’ve learned how to entertain ourselves on the loooooong bus rides and find some shut eye wherever we can. We look forward to Israel and finally filling our tummies. (: Miss you all… ps. Brittany says hello.

Reflections – Katja Edelman

 

After a busy day of overwhelming emotions, I try to reflect on my feelings, how I dealt with the unimaginable numbers and the sites of destruction that hit me like a hard blow to the stomach. I entered the crematoriums, the first stop on our tour of
Auschwitz.  I wasn’t expecting to visit such a powerful site so early, and therefore approached it completely unprepared. I can’t quite describe the feeling that came over me as I faced the cold, stone ovens. My stomach twisted into a painful knot, my lungs refused to provide me with enough air, and a wave of fear swept over me like I could have never imagined.  The numbers scrambled through my head confusing me more than anything. I quickly realized that those numbers mean so much more than what we think. Each person had their own story, their own family, their own hopes, dreams and aspirations.  As I entered the gas chamber I couldn’t help myself from thinking of their stories.  The scratches on the wall hit me like a ton of bricks. One spot was especially difficult, it looked as if it had been scratched by only one hand, was it a woman holding tightly to her young child praying with everything she had that her little one would be spared, or was it a teenager like myself wondering why she never got the chance to fulfill all her dreams for the future. At such difficult sites I questioned everything and mourned those forgotten souls lost in these dark rooms.

            Eventually we moved on from these places that were quickly becoming to painful to deal with. The glass cases filled with eye-glasses, suitcases and shoes of the prisoners also hit hard. Again it made each person more real to me. Among the shoes I saw one that belonged to a small child.  It’s hard to imagine that someone could have so much hate and evil to commit such an atrocious act.  Of course, no murder is acceptable; however the destruction of a young child-a symbol of truly pure innocence-is an action more evil than anything else imaginable. 

            Finally we began our March, the main purpose of our trip.  As we lined up I was amazed at the numbers of other teenagers surrounding me. Still, they were just numbers, and faces I didn’t recognize from countries that seemed completely foreign to me. I marched in silence, arms linked with my close friends who provided much-needed comfort. Once we reached the bridge that covered the railroad tracks I turned around and was immediately shocked. I finally realized that the thousands of people were not just numbers; in fact we represented something much bigger.  Our existence demonstrates the triumph of our people. As we marched in the footsteps of our ancestors where they were stripped of their dignity and led ruthlessly to their death, I finally understood.  We represent the hope they held on to so desperately, the strength they used in times of such pain, and ultimately our triumph over those who sought our destruction. We are the future and I now understand the importance of my role as a Jew. I know I must never forget who I am, I will live for the forgotten and the martyrs who died so that I could exist today.

 

Reflections – Rebekah Sosland

Today will be the day that will always be remembered as the day that changed my life forever. As I walked into the crematory in
Auschwitz, a soul of a girl who suffered in that same crematory, jumped inside of me. I all of a sudden felt a horrible feeling inside, a feeling of hate, confusion, and torture. There were nail marks all over the walls from the suffering, innocent people who were trying to get out. The actual fingernails of my ancestors were carved in the very wall I was staring at, and that’s when I fell apart. This mysterious person inside off me was telling me that the worse part about it all was there were no answers to the millions of questions the sufferers had. Why? Why were they there? Why were they suffering so terribly just because of there faith? What can drive a human being, my own race, to do such horrible things? I stood there for about 5 minutes and just cried. I didn’t know what else to do. I was scared myself. I was scared because the person inside of me was scared, but we were there for each other. That is all that kept me sane is to know that we were there for each other. Every tear that is running down my face, I now dedicate to the soul of the lonely girl who is in me now in me, and will be until the day I die. To the girl who died with out answers, and who wept as I wept in that cold terrible place. May we never forget the people, the hate, and the suffering.

-Rebekah Sosland-

 

Reflections on Aushwitz – Emily Passer

Not only are we here-alive, breathing, crying, feeling and experiencing- but we are proving to the makers of this hate and hell on earth that they did not win, that we, the children and decedents of the survivors are more powerful than anything that they could create.  The emotional experience that exists within the MOTL is greater than any feeling ever known to man.  To see it, is to believe it, but to tell how we see it, will spread the belief so all will know and remember, Never Again.  –04/25/2006

4\256- Yom Hashoah- “ Revisiting the horrors of Auschwitz” and the March – Leah Belson

As I look out the window of the rainy and cloudy sky, I wait in anticipation to arrive at
Auschwitz. Today marks the day of the commemoration of the Shoah, the Holocaust. It just mind boggles me that I am now going to walk through the “gate of decievement” with the knowledge of the lie that is bestowed within those words “ Arbeit macht frei”. And a question comes to mind. Why do I get to walk calmly through the unguarded gate, not ripped away from my loved ones, not thrown aside like garbage being thrown in a trash can, and comforted by the thousands around me unthreatened by those words which slaughtered so many? It is through this 3 kilometer march that I and so many will try to conjure the meaning of –why. It is through this march to the gas chambers, crematorium, and slaughter house that the ideology of the holocaust will be put into perspective when the generations of the survivors of the holocaust prevail by marching in pride to a place that once reeked with death. We are marching in pride to show that we are no longer being forced to march to our own deaths but rather we are walking to live! We will march with our personal motivation to show that WE, yes we, are the result of the triumph of the Jews. And that is why, as I finish writing this, there is no longer a rainy, dreary, and cloudy sky out my window, but a ray of sunlight shinning. – I’m here, Here I go….

4\256- Yom Hashoah- “ Revisiting the horrors of Auschwitz” and the March – Leah Belson

As I look out the window of the rainy and cloudy sky, I wait in anticipation to arrive at
Auschwitz. Today marks the day of the commemoration of the Shoah, the Holocaust. It just mind boggles me that I am now going to walk through the “gate of decievement” with the knowledge of the lie that is bestowed within those words “ Arbeit macht frei”. And a question comes to mind. Why do I get to walk calmly through the unguarded gate, not ripped away from my loved ones, not thrown aside like garbage being thrown in a trash can, and comforted by the thousands around me unthreatened by those words which slaughtered so many? It is through this 3 kilometer march that I and so many will try to conjure the meaning of –why. It is through this march to the gas chambers, crematorium, and slaughter house that the ideology of the holocaust will be put into perspective when the generations of the survivors of the holocaust prevail by marching in pride to a place that once reeked with death. We are marching in pride to show that we are no longer being forced to march to our own deaths but rather we are walking to live! We will march with our personal motivation to show that WE, yes we, are the result of the triumph of the Jews. And that is why, as I finish writing this, there is no longer a rainy, dreary, and cloudy sky out my window, but a ray of sunlight shinning. – I’m here, Here I go….

Day one – Krakow

When we arrived in
Poland we noticed how rapidly our group’s emotions changed – we became serious, focused, and very curious. As the day went on, though we were tired, we happily walked through the streets of
Krakow and learned from Rabbi Matanky and our other chaperones. At the Rama Shul we sang a Carelbach nigun that really united our region –
Chicago,
Dallas, and
Kansas. So far, things have been running smoothly and we’ve already learned so much about our pasts. We are really anxious for tomorrow’s march, but we still have so much to do today (kick off event, learning, unpacking, etc.).

 

Love,

Hanna Sorkin and Dani Singer