Debi's Amazing journey

Thank you

2010-09-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Just want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to read my blog, as well as the people who made comments- I have read them all. This life altering journey has truly taken me to places within myself I never expected to go. Sharing my experiences with others is my passion and goal. I also understand when it is difficult for people to hear about such unfathomable atrocities or to even grasp the notion that people could be so inhuman.
Nevertheless- I will continue to bring the journey into the lives of anyone who wishes to be part of it,, through discussion, learning and this blog.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this and perhaps go to places within yourself that may not be very comfortable but necessary.

Peace
Debi

August 25,2010

2010-08-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have been home for four days from all my summer activities. I am still sorting through pictures, videos and trying- with some difficulty- to resume my life at home.
Today, was a special day spent with special people. I went into NYC ,along with my husband Tom, and met up with Mitch Polay, ( From the Teacher's trip) and my good friend Carol, to see "A Film Unfinished." The film is a documentary of the Warsaw ghetto, which was filmed by the Nazi's for the purpose of propaganda, to falsely show that many Jews were doing well. The film combines the footage that some of us have already seen with the newly discovered footage that may have ended up on the cutting room floor. The footage includes actual glimpses of the cameramen ( they were unaware their images were captured on film). It is obvious that the scenes were staged and were often done in 2 or 3 takes until they 'got it right.' Looking at the faces of the people it is obvious they are looking at a camera and are being instructed how to look, where to look, etc. The images are chilling and disturbing. The narration of the director, Yael Hersonskii is profound and chilling. My husband was particularly moved by the survivors who are individually watching the film. The fact that they have to,in some cases, cover their eyes, and are moved beyond tears brings them to say that during that time they felt nothing, they were often numb to the corpses in the street and the starvation, and disease all around them, but now they can cry, and it is too unbearable to watch. One survivor comments that this means that she is now a human being again- something she feels she was not during that time- she was only 8 or 9. The head of the Judenrat, Adam Czerniakow wrote diaries that were discovered. Portions of the diary are read during the film to correspond with the actual filming he is referring to in his diary entries. He later committed suicide with a cyanide capsule he kept. There is also testimony of one of the cameramen that has been discovered and adds to the depth of this film.

The one scene that I was affected by was a staged scene of what appears to be a 'well to do Jewish person' standing next to a Jew who is obviously poor, starving and near death. The comparison was to falsely try to say that some Jews were doing well in the ghetto. One pair of people, two women, the one who is suppose to be well to do appears obviously uncomfortable and disturbed, on the verge of tears, and we can tell the 'director' gives her instructions and she turns to the camera and tries to look wide eyed.

Looking at this film and seeing the dead Jews being dumped into a mass grave in the cemetery where we were in Warsaw was particularly poignant. It was not overgrown( as it is today), the gates to the cemetery are the same. Some of the streets in the Ghetto are the same ones we walked on. Many of the places were pointed out to us by Waslaw, and when the walls of the ghetto were shown up close, I wondered if that that the part of the wall I touched.

Please see the movie- and let me know what you think.

July 30,2010

2010-07-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if anyone will continue to read my blog, but I feel compelled to continue as I digest the last few weeks. Saying that this was a life changing experience may seem trite and contrived, but just reading the posts on Facebook from the participants clearly shows that each one of us has connected and bonded while individually having our lives altered. I envy the younger teachers who have so many more years ahead of them to use this new knowledge to educate students. However, my decision to go in this direction- no matter my age- I promise has become a focal point and a personal responsibility. I will be preparing an outline for a course that I have hopes will be offered in September 2011. Why teach Holocaust/Genocide studies through literature? "If history is just chronology, what is there to understand? If it involves vital moral and ethical issues, it involves the way we understand ourselves and the world around us." The literature- diaries, memoirs,poetry,non fiction writing are a powerful way for students to make sense of a time that has past. Hearing the individual voices,and reconstructing a lost time before, during, and after a genocide is inherently important. Literature can help students to look at themselves and the world through the voices of individuals.

I have begun to re read many of the books I read prior to the trip. It is remarkable how I look at it differently. "Ordinary Men" by Christopher Browning is a case in point. Just reading the preface and seeing one of the people that helped with the book was Yehuda Bauer, who gave our group a wonderful lecture. Just reading the first few lines" In Mid March 1942 some 75 to 80 percent of all victims of the Holocaust were still alive, while 20 to 25 percent had perished. A mere eleven months later, in mid-February 1943, the percentages were exactly reversed."..."Reserve Police Battalion 101 demonstrates, mass murder and routine had become one. Normality itself had become exceedingly abnormal.
This book retells how ordinary men committed extraordinary atrocities- they had choices. Students, teachers, people in general all have choices; sometimes they are choiceless choices- but often they are not.

I have learned so much and yet so little. There are no simple answers to complicated questions, however if a teacher can get a student to ask questions,and to seek reflection within themselves- then we as educators have succeeded.

I suggest you read this book, and maybe email me or facebook me to let me know your thoughts.

July 26,2010

2010-07-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

Right before the tearful goodbye. I have to digest the past few weeks and will be blogging in a few days with some final reflections. For those who have followed me through this journey- I apologize for the many typo errors! I will try to fix them.

July 25,2010

2010-07-25T18:24:00.001-07:00

It is 9:30 pm and we just completed our last dinner together as a group. We shared our most memorable experiences and our directors actually admitted that we have been their favorite group in over 20 years.

I had started my last entry when we got kicked off of the internet and now I am not sure what I had previously written. Last night is a blur with the exception of meeting up with Ross, Diana and Tom at a local pub to see them. Three of my friends convinced me to forgo the rest and catch a cab. Im glad I did. Ross told me that I was a hit with his frat brothers when I had a picture of myself drinking my first beer while wearing a Delt T Shirt!.

Today it was extremely hot once again as we walked over to USHMM for an all day workshop. Steve gave us an overwhelming amount of on line web sites that will be extremely useful. After lunch, which was a hot dog at a street corner vendor, we were once again honored and humbled with the testimony of a Holocaust survivor : Henry Greenbaum. Henry was only 11 when the war broke out and his journey into hell began at 15 until he was 19 years of age. He survived a labor camp, concentration camp (Birkeneau), Buna, a death march and a bullet to the back of his head- that along with starvation, lice, and the loss of most of his family. He spoke eloquently, with little trace of a Polish accent. He also spoke with passion and heart as he gave us the responsibility of carrying on his story. Although we were all so tired, we wre riveted to our seats hanging on each word.

It was fitting that this journey ended where it had begun. However, when I walked through the museum this morning, I truly looked at it with different eyes. I looked at the photos, and videos realizing I had been there, I walked down those cobblestone streets of Warsaw, I saw the remnants of the ghetto wall that appears in a particular photo. I sat inside a cattle car and touched the walls. There is a convention of boy scouts in DC and many were in the museum along with us- before the public. I walked around listening to these boys ask questions as they walked around, and I was able to fill in some blanks as well as ask them how they felt about what they saw. I realized I had learned so much these past few weeks and was able to point out important artifacts to these young men. I found myself pointing to the photos in the shetetl and reminding them to look at the faces, see the families, the celebrations and remember these people were alive, flourished, wanted the same things that we all want- yet they were unable to do so . I recalled a quote I heard about how if one believes absurdities they can commit atrocities. Believing that the Roma, Jehovah Witnesses, Homosexuals, and most of all Jews, were less than human is truly absurd.

Three weeks, 27 people, a mission, a journey, a profound responsibility, I can only try.

July 25,2010

2010-07-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

5 a.m. Warsaw Marriot Hotel. I have been up for a while,anticipating a 10 hour plus plane ride to DC. I was thinking about the day yesterday and all the days that preceded it. What I felt throughout this trip to Europe- with the exception of Israel- was the absence. It was visiting authentic sites that were leveled, and nothing remains but memorials, albeit ponderous and poignant, nonetheless- there is an emptiness that transcends through these places of pain, suffering and death. The trees have grown taller, the grass has filled in, yet there is an absence. There once was a thriving community of a people who lived, had families, occupations, celebrated holidays, weddings, births and mourned the natural passing of family members. The absence of these people is suffocating and overwhelming: There are no Jews here- they are absent.

What is disconcerting is that anti Semitic graffiti is not unusual to see. I was disturbed by the fact that teachers in Poland have told us that they spend 1 hour on the subject- the subject- the 3 to 5 million people who are absent from their own country, are a one hour lesson. One of our participants-the only African American- has felt his own absence being somewhat of a novelty in this country where I have personally not seen any other Black people other than at this airport.

There also is hope. Hope in the 25 teachers- of all religions and ethnicities, who have made a commitment not to let the faces and memories fade; hope in the wonderful
non Jewish tour guides who are passionate about Jewish History, Roma History, and all the victims of the Holocaust. There is hope in the younger generation who will benefit from all these people who will continue the legacy of Vladka Mead.

July 24- last day

2010-07-23T12:38:00.001-07:00

Today is our last full day in Poland and we sadly left Lodz and headed towards Warsaw. We've returned to Warsaw so we can fly back to the United States tomorrow morning. We go from Warsaw to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to DC. If there aren't any delays we should arrive back in the U.S. just before 4 pm. The hotel we're staying at this evening, a Courtyard Marriott is within walking distance of the Warsaw airport. The walk is literally a 200 foot walk from the lobby to the Lufthansa check in desk. I've never seen anything like this before. We don't have to worry about wrestling bags onto a bus, we simply walk out the hotel's front door. This is the most "Americanized" of the international hotels we've visited. The rooms have both U.S. and European outlets and there's no shortage of English TV channels. I don't mean to sound like a spoiled American day tripper, but these small luxuries are nice to have. We spent most of today in a bus. Looking back on it, the day consisted of an endless cycle involving sleep, reading, viewing the countryside, eating M&Ms, more sleep, eating chips and apples, and various conversations. The reason for the long bus ride was a visit to the site of Treblinka concentration camp. Treblinka is 4 hours away from Lodz, but the journey was a bit longer due to traffic delays.

Treblinka was the last emotional stop for our group. Treblinka was one of 6 Nazi killing camps and one of 3 Aktion Reinhardt camps solely devoted to murdering as many Jews as possible. Treblinka was responsible for murdering an estimated 800,000 Jews. What is an even more disturbing fact is that all of these deaths occurred in a concentrated span of 16 months, roughly from July 1942-November 1943. Treblinka is really located in the middle of nowhere. You must travel great distances to visit as it is located in the middle of the forest. We traveled on various dirt roads to get to there. Auschwitz is located within a city and fairly close to Krakow. Belzec was built within viewing distance of the nearest town. During the time that Treblinka was fully operating, no outsiders came even remotely close to the camp. One photo exists of smoke coming from the pits of burning bodies and even that was taken from a considerable distance. The only camp which murdered more Jews was Auschwitz.

Today when you visit Treblinka nothing remains from the original camp. I always feel that there is something about the absence that is haunting as opposed to places where the presence of remains is tangible. Upon abandoning the camp, Heinrich Himmler ordered that Treblinka be completely destroyed. The Nazis were very effective in carrying out Himmler's orders. All traces of the original camp were removed and destroyed. The Nazis bulldozed the entire camp. We know about the location of Treblinka due to a few valuable sources. An inmate who was taken to Treblinka was able to hide underneath one of the cattle cars and survived the journey back to Warsaw. He was able to sketch the camp's locations and dynamics onto a piece of paper that eventually made its way to the Jewish Underground. Inhabitants from a neighboring village noticed all of the activity and trains in the area and reported what they observed. Finally, a few people did survive Treblinka, but not many. Steve lit a memorial candle for Vladka's family( see photo)

Treblinka is located amidst a very lush, beautiful forest that did not exist 67 years ago. As I walked up to the camp's entrance the forest reminded me of walking through local forest land. Scenically, Treblinka reminds me of Bergen Belsen in terms of how both camps are situated among a very beautiful forest. The most important thing to remember with this comparison is that Bergen Belsen doesn't even compare to Treblinka concerning the number of people murdered at the camp. A stoned path sits where the original railroad tracks once were. Next to the stone path is a series of stone slabs leading further into the camp. These slabs, which are part of the Soviet memorial at Treblinka symbolize the railroad tracks which one guided people into the camp. There wasn't much to Treblinka when it existed besides railroad tracks, a gas chamber an open pit to burn bodies and a few living quarters. Selections didn't take place at Treblinka because the camp's sole purpose was to murder as many Jews as possible. The most disturbing statistic I heard during my time at Treblinka was that 120 guards were responsible for murdering an estimated 800,000 people. This isn't a statistical error. Human beings certainly have the potential to commit the gravest of atrocities.

As I walked through Treblinka I noticed the various rock fields. This was similar to Belzec's memorial, but different and unique because Treblinka's rock fields were spread out more and the stones were different in size. The first series of rocks I viewed were much larger than the rest and identified all of the countries where Jews came. The field of more but smaller stones has a village's name on each rock. Out of all the rocks, only one person's name exists: Janusz Korczak, an author and educator. Korczak ran an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and cared for 200 children. Korczak knew that the ghetto would be liquidated and he knew that upon deportation his children would be immediately gassed. Korczak had many opportunities to flee and save himself, but he refused to abandon his children. Korczak boarded the train to Treblinka with his children and bravely marched with them to the gas chamber. Korczak knew there wasn't any hope for his survival, but it was more important that he remain with his children. I don't know many people who possess this level of bravery. Upon leaving the camp grounds, I placed a rock on the stone with his name to pay my respects and leave evidence of my visit.

A house-size rock memorial stands where the gas chambers once stood. Directly next to the gas chamber is a rock field of mostly black rocks. In this particular area is where the pit of burning bodies once existed. It was difficult to remain in this area for too long. The base of this pit contained many memorial candles and other traces of previous visits. Some people in our group who toured Treblinka today broke down for the first time all trip. I didn't show it on the outside, but internally I struggled with visiting a place that was responsible for such horrific atrocities. I will continue to think about and analyze the places I've visited long after I return home. Visiting these camps is a difficult, horrific experience, but one that people definitely need to take. The remnants of the concentration camps are direct evidence that such barbaric acts really occurred and they happened during the fairly recent past. As an educator, it's my responsibility to visit these places so I can pass along what I've witnessed to teachers and students.
. The ride was like going back in time. Most of the houses were either cement or wood - crooked little buildings with fenced in yards. Cows were chained to trees in the front yard - chickens roamed the yard and horses were seen within barns. We even saw a few storks on chimneys

After dinner, we gathered for an end of the tour get-together where we roasted our directors and each other. I wrote a series of "The most likely to..." which which poked fun at everyone's little quirks. There were several very funny moments. We repeated the words to the Partisan Song which is usually sung at Holocaust Remembrance. We honored Vladka Mead - the originator of the program, and finally, we sang "Que Sera Sera" - Vladka's favorite song - What will be, will be --

This is our last international night. Some of the people in the group are re-packing their clothes. Other people have congregated in the hotel bar to share a few more laughs across the pond. I will leave you with a funny experience to end this dispatch. Last night we ate at a restaurant which serves traditional Polish food. The first dish served to us was a fish gelatin mostly consisting of carp. You read this last sentence correctly. At first I didn't know what to make of this dish placed in front of me, but after a series of incredulous looks I could not venture into this jelly like texture. There were too many contrasting elements that my mind couldn't overcome. Carp meat, skin, almonds and fruit combined with the wiggly texture just didn't tempt my taste buds so I humbly set the fish jell-o aside. Thankfully, the main course of duck and the lime gelatto doused in vodka more than made up for the rocky beginning.

Tomorrow I'll write from the USA!!

July 22,2010 activities

2010-07-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's 95 degrees on this Thursday afternoon in Lodz. We have the majority of the day to ourselves to rest and relax. I actually treated myself to a Polish relaxation massage this afternoon that was truly rejuvenating!A different experience from a massage in the States, but nonetheless wonderful.

Not much survives of the original Lodz ghetto today. There are a few buildings, that you can tell by looking at them they were built before World War II and still stand today. By April 30th, 1940 160,000 Jews were sectioned off in the Lodz ghetto. Within the first few months 15,000 Jews were deported to Chelmno to make room for more people coming into the ghetto. Among these numbers, 15,000 Jews who were skilled laborers were brought into Lodz. Eventually, Lodz became a gigantic labor camp for the goods it manufactured for the German army. The leader of the Judenrat, or Jewish leadership group of the ghetto, Mordechai Cham Rumkowski instilled in the inhabitants that if you are going to live in the Lodz ghetto you must work hard to earn food. Rumkowski was the same man who made the speech for parents to hand over their children in an effort to set aside more food for people he felt were better workers, and essentially more valuable. Rumkowski, who had an inflated opinion of himself even had coins and currency made containing his image. Opinions about him today greatly differ. Some people believe they owe their life to Rumkowski. Others can't find enough vehement adjectives to describe their disdain for the man.

The first place we visited this morning was St. Mary's Church in Lodz. We visited this church because the Nazis used St. Mary's as a gathering place for looted goods, namely blankets. I'm not saying that the Catholic Church in Poland collaborated with the Nazis. They didn't. When the Nazis arrived in Lodz St. Mary's wasn't a functional church. The Nazis evicted the limited number of religious personnel at St. Mary's and used it to store items confiscated from the Jews. The reason that blankets were so commonly confiscated was to send them back to Germany. The Nazis also knew that if the Jews were without their blankets, especially during the Polish winters they would be condemning the Jews to their deaths.

After we departed the Church we visited to Jewish cemetery in Lodz. The Jewish cemetery in Lodz is very beautiful, and it's the largest cemetery in size that we've visited on this trip, (excluding Auschwitz and Majdanek). To give you an idea about the size of the cemetery 180,000 bodies are buried in this cemetery. Roughly 45,000 of these people died in the Lodz ghetto or mass graves. When you immediately walk into the cemetery gates there are grave stones on the interior parts of the wall. These stones commemorate the Holocaust victims. One mausoleum belongs to Israel Poznanski, a major industrialist responsible for building 3 palaces and a factory next to our hotel. This mausoleum where Pozanski and his wife are buried is enormous. Ultimately, it's a pompous tribute to a man who had a very arrogant opinion of himself. This mausoleum was noteworthy to see for its sheer size, but it's an anomaly. Before World War II, roughly 2/3 of Jews in Poland received some sort of welfare or community assistance. An overwhelming majority of the Jewish population was very poor. Steve, one of our group leaders shared with us how his grandmother used to send money to her relatives in Poland before the war to assist them. She would hide the money in toilet paper, so custom officials wouldn't be tempted to steal the money for themselves. As we walked deeper into the cemetery we noticed an incredibly large field filled with endless rows of name plates. In this part of the cemetery 43,527 bodies are buried, all of whom died in the Lodz ghetto. The sheer number of all the plates overwhelmed me. One of the last places we visited in this Jewish cemetery was a set of large ditches, which today are covered on all sides by rapidly growing vegetation. These ditches were supposed to be mass graves. The victims dug the graves, but fortunately, the area was liberated before the Nazis could fill them.

The Rodegast train station we visited after the cemetery was especially memorable. This train station was the arrival point for 45,000 Jews sent to live in the Lodz ghetto. A few years later, 145,000 Jews were deported from Rodegast to various death camps. On the side of the station a train and a cattle car is on some authentic tracks. The car was used to transport Jews to the camps, but which one is unknown. It was very disturbing to stand in the cattle car,where so much death took place.It was very hot, and with only a few of us standing inside it was hard to breath. Unimaginable. In the actual train station officials still keep records of the names of people sent to the various concentration camps. It was hard for me to get my head around this place as I walked around the train station and the platforms.

During the visits to these places we had some great historical discussions. Today's discussions focused on the Soviets during World War II. To give you an idea about the scope of destruction the Soviets experienced, 20 million Soviets died during World War II. 292,000 American soldiers died during World War II. This figure gives you an accurate idea about how brutal the war was on the Eastern front. Among many things, Stalin was a shrewd, tyrannical leader. He didn't want to liberate this area because he knew it was primarily Anti-Communist. Stalin didn't want to waste the manpower and resources to liberate an area whose ideals conflicted with his own.
The first photo is the trench dug by Jews that fortunately was never used, followed by a photo of the inside of the synagogue associated with the cemetery,and two pictures of the cattle cars

This trip is slowly winding down. We have one more day in Poland before flying home to the U.S. We are having a banquet tomorrow night on our last night and plan a little comic relief for the occasion.With the help of Mitch and Linda I have developed a list of superlatives for each person on the trip, that touch on each one's special personalty trait.

July 22,2010 A.M.

2010-07-21T22:04:00.002-07:00

I wanted to add a bit more information from yesterday including some photos of the local 'color' of this small town.

First, one of the concepts that permeates throughout this trip is that the Jews were always looked upon as the "others," and of European identity. People thought as themselves as Germans, Poles, Swedes, etc yet they looked at Jews who lived in those same places as "Jews" only which makes them the "others. One photo posted is of a little girl and life before the pogrom that took her life

We visited many memorials and I know they often blur and melt into each other,so I have collected a few names as I went along not to forget again each one had a life and a name:
On a head stone - Gisel Kerbel 15 mths old killed in Pogrom in Kielce1946
Ciril Brajdic and Anna Reuchel- Roma ( Gypsies) murdered in Auschwitz
Klara Goldstein, Leon Singer- names written in their own handwriting on suitcases which they never received

there are more many more....

I took a photo of Sid, our participant who has been diligently creating videos, and interviewing each of us at one time or another- I thought his quiet pensive moment captured the day.

2010-07-21T22:04:00.001-07:00

July 21,2010

2010-07-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

We are in Lodz Poland, in another Andel's hotel, much like the one we stayed in in Krackow. However we are in a place that was once all factories and the factories have been renovated into living quarters, a huge mall around the corner, and this hotel. The ambiance is very different as walls of the factory have been blended into the decor of the hotel. Around the corner is the castle of a famous Polish Jewish family who were the richest people in Poland during the early 19th-20 century. The factories were mostly textiles.
Today we visited the location of the ghetto in Kielce and a the place where 42 men, women and children were murdered by the Nazi's after the war was already over. A cemetery where the remains were buried remains locked because of vandalism, was opened for us today, Only 2 weeks ago a memorial was opened to memorialize the children. The 'sunken' Menorah is a memorial in the town to represent the fallen Jews of this town, and is located where the ghetto once stood.

The evening was spent with the group reflecting on the last few days. Those that chose to speak spoke of their feelings about Auschwitz and the other death camps we visited. I, for one, spoke of the bond created by the women with Elaine, and Elaine elaborated in the stories of her mother and grand parents. Tomorrow we will visit only a few sites and have the afternoon free, We will have one more place to visit on Friday then we will be heading back to Washington DC.

This trip has truly changed my life, and how I look at everyday items as simple as, a hair brush, a comb, a toothbrush etc. Anti Antisemitism is unfortunately alive and well in the world. Just today I saw a 'doll' of a Hasidic man holding a coin, the implication is obvious and the doll is common here as a good luck charm that the Jew with the money will bring money into your home. In addition- although there are no swastikas on walls, or as graffiti, depiction of a hangman's gallows with Jewish stars hanging from them are used when writing negative things about sports opponents.
Have we come very far???

enjoy the photos of this hotel we have a see through glass bathroom which I will post tomorrow

July 21,20010

2010-07-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

We are ready to leave once again and head for Lodz- pronounced "Woodz" Last night I met Linda's Polish relatives. They were so warm and charming!
Just a few pictures to see of a wonderful evening. They brought both Linda and me flowers, which I used as my anniversary gift! Today is my 25th Wedding anniversary!

July 20,2010

2010-07-20T07:17:00.001-07:00

July 20,2010

I have written many facts, but have not always written how I am feeling. Each day I feel as if we go deeper and deeper into the belly of this beast. Each step gets harder to walk, its gets harder to inhale as we walk along the cobblestones of a camp. The question ‘How could this have happened?” or just a simple “Why” is always present in my mind- but there will never be an answer.

What remains a constant is the systematic, bureaucratic way in which this was so well planned. People like to believe there is hope, people want to believe that in our hearts there is a shred of goodness. These people ( I avoid saying monsters because after all so many could not have been monsters they were ordinary people) used every part of every man woman and child. They knew human nature and used it: keeping people unaware, making up the facade of a nice warm shower after the long arduous journey by hanging hooks for clothes, telling them to remember their hook number to retrieve their belongings , the orchestra played music, the showers looked real - all in the effort to keep people calm: it worked.
Then taking everything that makes one human from clothes to eye glasses, combs, forks, prosthetic limbs, baby clothes, and shoes shoes, more shoes. Then taking away dignity- being stripped and being naked in front of everyone, What was left? The victims still held on to each other, some prayed, some were silent.

As we walked down the dirt and broken cobblestone roads at Birkeneau I heard the clomp of the feet of many 50 people walking at one time. The sound was somewhat in uniform “ Slosh, swish, slosh swish” It was raining and difficult to walk with good walking shoes on. Now I thought about wooden clogs, that were in itself a torture then some were too small or too big, This was also well thought out torture. The shoes hurt. They would cause sores which would cause the person to become weak and unable to work. You know the result.

So in essence everything was a means to an end- death. The sheer magnitude of Birkineau was impossible to grasp. The conditions of the barracks are indescribable, I looked over at Elaine watching her gently walk around the bunks knowing her mother was one of the women who endured there. What saved her was the compassion of other women, who after her sister dies, embraced her and watched over her- that sustained her and she defied the Nazi Ideology by living.

Meeting with the Polish teachers was together upsetting and enlightening. The two I spent time with both were passionate about teaching the Holocaust but spend little time on it. Krzysztof was about my age, an admitted liberal who writes for a local paper, published some poetry, and remembers what life was like under Communist rule. He recalled how he was beaten by police during a demonstration. He teaches history and takes students to Auschwitz once a year . When asked what their reaction was he motioned that they cry. The other teacher was a young student who has not actually taught as yet. He told us he has 1 hour in which to teach the Holocaust. He also told us that his grandparents live in a place where 3,000 Jews had lived. That is the point “had lived” all were taken- none returned.

There are many stories that were told and each again is a person. If I repeat this over and over it is because we must always see the multitude as individuals.

Today we will visit Oscar Schindler’s factory. Picture of me by the factory is posted here. I recalled how I did research on Rosalie Weiser Klein for my class at Kean. She was sent here to Krakow and then to the Plaszow camp-not far from here. You can get information on her on the internet . Her story is harrowing.

Today we visited The Jewish Quarter and saw the oldest synagogues still in use for Orthodox and one for Reformed Jews. There actually is a small Chasidic Jewish community that came from the States that live here now.

What intrigued me most today was visiting Oscar Schindler’s factory. It was where the film was done and where the actual events unfolded. You can see the street where the young woman walked down to get Schindler to help her parents, and we saw where the workers walked from the ghetto to the factory. The windows have copies of the list displayed and on the outside, actual photos of the “Schindler Jews” are also on display.

The scenes where the ghetto was emptied and where the belongings were thrown from the balcony were actually done at a location that Speilberg felt was more ‘artistic.’ You can recognize them from the photo.
There is a museum inside the building. We also saw what was left of the Krackow ghetto wall, which was built by slave labor Jews. The Nazi's in their effort to humiliate, had the walls built in the shape of head stones so that the Jews inside felt like they were inside a cemetery.
We then had the afternoon off so we shopped for amber, which is famous in Krackow. We ate Lodi ( ice cream). and are waiting to have dinner with Linda’s Polish relatives.
This morning, one participant, Mitch announced to the bus that it was my 25th wedding anniversary and Elaine led the group in a rendition of “Simentov and Mazel tov.”

2010-07-19T23:16:00.001-07:00

July 19,2101

2010-07-19T13:23:00.001-07:00

Auschwitz Birkeneau- pictures are the latrine, bunks. entrance to Birkeneau, entrance to Auschwitz

It’s a rainy night in Krakow. This has by far been the most exhausting day of the entire trip. I don’t mean this in a bad way, it was just a long day. We spent the day at Auschwitz. I never doubted the accounts I read, but I always felt I had to visit Auschwitz in order to better understand the place. We arrived at the camp around 9:15 this morning and we didn’t leave Birkenau until after 5pm this evening. The hardest thing to comprehend and what I think will be the most difficult concept to present in my lessons is how large Auschwitz I and II are in terms of its sheer size. We were on the grounds for about 8 hours, and we saw but a small fraction of the entire place. We spent the morning in Auschwitz 1 and the afternoon in Birkenau.

Auschwitz 1 was the first place we visited in the morning. The solemn tone was set for me as we passed underneath the Arbeit Macht Frei sign at the camp’s entrance. This saying, which translates to “work makes you free” is one of many examples of the Nazis manipulating language to have an otherwise morbid and disturbing content. Auschwitz 1 is much smaller compared to Birkenau. We spent most of the morning walking throughout the camp’s buildings. The buildings which were open now house museum exhibits. Many people in our group found the buildings’ contents difficult to comprehend. One of the displays houses 2 tons of human hair. The display filled up the majority of the room. 2 tons of human hair was harvested from 40,000 victims. The hair was cut after the people were gassed. Even though this practice was a blatant defilement of Jewish burial customs, the Nazis preferred this order of operations so that people wouldn’t be alarmed and panic before being gassed.The hair is NOT preserved, as that would go against Jewish law, as a result the hair has turned a grayish color and there is a distinct smell permeating in the room. Many people upon first arriving in Auschwitz thought they were being led to the showers and to resettle in their new homes. It wasn’t until right before they were gassed that the victims realized what was happening to them. One display housed a large pile of eyeglasses collected. Another display housed luggage the newly arrived occupants surrendered to the camp officials. The victims’ contact information was still legible on the side of each individual piece of luggage. In the basement of the block used as a prison was a series of rooms devoted to different methods of torture. One room was completely dark without any ventilation that caused its inhabitants to suffocate. Another room was referred to as the standing room where inmates were forced to stand for long periods of time- four people that had to often stand on one leg because there was no room. Another room was used to house and starve inmates. The entire area was very claustrophobic. This, combined with the contents of the basement made it hard for me to breathe.
We arrived at Birkenau around 2 pm. Birkenau is the second, significantly larger section of the entire camp. To give you a better idea about Birkenau, it’s one square mile in area. Birkenau is 11 times bigger than Auschwitz 1. The majority of Jews were sent to Birkenau. 70,000 Jews died at Auschwitz 1. An estimated 900,000 Jews died at Birkenau. If you’ve ever seen the movie Schindler’s List or the picture with the large tower and the railroad tracks leading into camp then you’ve seen images of Birkenau. The first place we stopped was in this guard tower. From this viewpoint Birkenau’s area seems to infinitely continue. The railroad tracks went down the middle of Birkenau and split it into two major sections: the female section and the male section. Many barracks still survive today, but not all the barracks are still standing. One of the first places we visited in the camp was the building devoted to the latrine. This was perhaps one of the most disturbing places we visited, and I wasn’t initially expecting this reaction. To give you an idea what the latrines looked like, 3 columns of multiple holes in the ground served as the toilets. Prisoners had 5 minutes in the bathroom to get ready in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening to use the bathroom before being locked in their sleeping quarters for the evening. To break this down even more, when thousands of inmates had to use the bathroom during a small window of time each inmate had about 15 seconds on the latrine before guards would beat them and force them to move so someone else could use the toilet. In this scene privacy wasn’t granted to any individual and a lack of decency pervaded the entire camp. I mention this area because the dehumanization of inmates was forced upon them as soon as they entered the camp and one of the first things they experienced each morning. Scholars call this the “excremental assault,” the idea that the subhuman treatment started with such basic, everyday activities like using the bathroom. Ironically, the work duty that gave inmates one of the best opportunities for survival was the sheizkommand, or the job of emptying the latrines. Inmates who worked on this duty were mostly inside, they could use the bathroom whenever they wished, they were left alone due to the unsanitary nature of the job and they had access to leave the camp to empty the latrines.

As we walked deeper into the camp we walked alongside the train tracks where the selections took place. I couldn’t help but keep quiet and try to make sense of my thoughts as we passed such a gruesome part of the camp. At this part of the camp doctors and SS personnel would be waiting for the trains to determine who was fit enough for work and who was too weak for work. The people deemed too weak were sent along a long path leading to the gas chambers. At Birkenau roughly 75 percent of all the arrived inmates were immediately sent to the gas chambers. When I traditionally think of a doctor I think of someone who took the Hippocratic oath to save and care for people. In Auschwitz, the doctor’s role was to determine who lived and who died. The location of Dr Mengele's experiments was pointed out. This is but another example of how the inverted world at Auschwitz functioned. All of the gas chambers and crematoriums at Birkenau were destroyed. In their place today are the ruins from this destruction. These ruins were intentionally left this way because they’re burial sites; ashes and remains of inmates are located at these sites, and it would defy Jewish burial customs to rebuild on a cemetery site.

One of the things that made this visit so memorable was our guide from Auschwitz, Agnes. She was a remarkable, very intelligent guide. She was in her twenties, and when I asked her ( as I have done for all our guides) what drew her to this occupation she told me that she is not Jewish and her grandfather was sent to a labor camp here at Auschwitz, although her family did not suffer too much during the war, she decided to major in Jewish Studies because Jews played a major part in the history of Poland. Her grandmother asked her why not work at Auschwitz- and she decided it was her calling to do so., she was so passionate in her words and opinions. If it weren’t for Agnes many of us wouldn’t have had such a worthwhile and meaningful experience. Agnes said a few things today that I felt were very poignant. Auschwitz is one of the world’s largest graveyards. Ashes of victims can literally be found throughout the camp, in the grass, in the ponds, underneath the ruins of killing centers and so forth. Today the camp looks lush and tranquil with all of the vegetation growing on the camp grounds and around the camp. 67 years ago the paths throughout the camp were barren from all of the inmate traffic.Any grass or flowers would have been eaten by the inmates.

. The most difficult thing for me to comprehend, but one of the most important things to remember is that Auschwitz and everything affiliated with it was man-made. Supernatural powers didn’t come to Earth and create Auschwitz. This place was the result of systematic and bureaucratic human actions. It’s very disturbing to think just how evil and sadistic people can knowingly be to each other on such a grand scale. By grand I mean the size of Birkenau and the scope of the operation. This was something that was instilled and developed over many years. Many people knew what was happening to the Jews, from the engineer who operated the trains that took the people to the camps, to the companies who paid for and received the bundles of human hair, to the officials working at the Allianz Insurance company who insured Auschwitz to the people a few train stops away from the Grunewald stop.

Elaine's mother and aunt were in Block 9. Her aunt did not survive there work at the rock quarry. Her mother did. Dora's number was 396300.
I have given a lot of information here, but again we must remember that each number was a person.
Agnes asked: What is the best punishment for the perpetrators? We discussed how Dr Mengele was able to live a normal life in South America before he drowned in the ocean. The best punishment for these people I believe is US! To never forget, to have a multitude of people who recognize what happened. For Jews to walk freely, and have many generations to have been created since this blot on humanity- that is punishment they did not win.

July 18 PM

2010-07-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Belzec was built on a slope in a valley. The neighboring homes had a clear view of the trains that came and went depositing thousands daily that were murdered within hours of being here- many others endured torture beyond the mind's comprehension. No attempt was made to hide what was happening here.There were few barracks because there was no need since this camp along with Sobibor and Treblinka were constructed for one purpose only- killing Jews. There was no selection because everyone's fate was the same
Out of 1,500,000 people only two yes 2 survived. One gave testimony and was soon murdered, the other escaped by luck and survived to write his memoirs about the camp. His story is graphic and hard to read Rudoulf Reder, but if you want more information you can read his book, translated from Polish. There were over 30 mass graves when this was finally over, and amongst them were Elaine Culbertson's grandmother, her two younger sisters, a newborn child (later named Sara), and countless others who all had names, faces and lives. Please remember them

July 18,2010

2010-07-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

We left Zamosc and went to Belzec. The women in the group walked as a group down a long walk way that got progressively taller and narrower, at the end the names of the dead are etched in the wall- only first names that represent the over 1,500,000 Jews murdered in the camp specifically designed for killing. There is nothing there that remained, the Nazi' got rid of all the evidence, The memorial is a vast landscape of crumbled rocks representing the vast emptiness left behind. Rosa, being the youngest, read Kaddish with Elaine for her grandmother- who had given birth to a child before being taken to Belzec and murdered, we all hugged, cried, and I read a poem that I had written only moments ago prior to our arrival in this camp:

For Elaine

The Pregnant silence hovers over
Women who have given life
Those who will give life
Those who have felt the quickened
movements of life within us.
The Pregnant silence hovers
Collectively we are silent.
Individually we scream out
We are the harbingers of life
We are the givers,
Yet we are suffocated in the
Pregnant silence that hovers
in this place.

July 18 AM

2010-07-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

It is another warm morning, 6 AM here, the sun has been up for several hours, I hear birds chirping and the bells of a church ringing- it is quiet.
Today will probably be even more difficult than before- as impossible as that may sound- we will be driving to Belzec the killing center that the Jews from this town and the surrounding towns met their fate. We have been discussing how people survived and many feel it was simple geography- ' the right place at the the right time.' Luck had a lot to do with it as well. Someone's decision to stay, go, hide- it all came down to luck.Escape?? there was a moral dilemma here- if you did your entire family would be killed or those around you in the camp would all be shot, so does one decide to try to escape knowing others will die because of you? In many cases such as in this town of Zamosc, Jews were caught between a rock and a hard place not knowing where to go or what to do. As I keep learning over and over again- there are no simple answers to complicated questions.

Elaine lost her grandparents at Belzec so today will be especially difficult for her. We, as a group will support her every moment we are there. This group of 25 strangers have become a family.We have one African American with us that made a promised visit to the Berlin stadium to see where Jesse Owens defied the Nazi ideology,he brings his own dimension to this journey. There are only four, of Jewish background,and others from several different religious backgrounds.One gentleman, Sid, choose Judaism- and it was a poignant moment watching him pray but the ashes of the dead, yesterday at Majdenek. Many of the group helped our Louisiana teacher skype with her students last night. One teacher came from a trip in Costa Rica directly to this. We check in on each other, laugh with each other, cry with each other.

On a lighter note- they love LOX in Poland! Every meal lox is served in one form or another. Being near the Baltic Sea Salmon and Herring are plentiful- so I am happy but many people who would never eat lox or herring are losing weight while I.....
There was only one thing so far I really did not like, it was a dessert that the top of the cake tasted like flowers. I was not a fan. Each hotel has been unique. It is the luck of the draw if you get a better room. Linda and I feel our room in Jerusalem was the best, although the shower in this room is so forceful, I love it. It is only a shower stall with a sliding enclosure door, but it is really strong.
No air conditioning since we left Israel. I hear the next hotel in Krakow is wonderful so I will write about it when I am there tonight.

I am so humbled to be around so many educated people, all who have added a dimension of their own to the trip. I have learned so much my head is spinning. The knowledge in the heads of this collective group is truly amazing.

July 17 PM

2010-07-17T12:22:00.003-07:00

I wanted to add that we are now in Zamosc. We traveled here through towns that were mentioned in the book "Ordinary Men." The towns which Battalion 101 such as Jozefow where these men killed so many in the towns we passed through today. The town now is a quaint little hamlet with Renaissance architecture, a lovely square where food is plenty and fresh flower stalls., but this little town has a dark history. Settled in 1588 by Sephardic Jews who left and then Ashkenazi Jews soon took their place. Before WWII 12,000 Jews thrived here and made up about 80% of the population. In 1939 it was caputred by the Soviets by a few days and then by the Germans. The Jews welcomed the Soviets as liberators. When the Soviets left about 5000 Jews went along with them.
Germans returned and rounded up the Jews for slave labor and their property was looted.
In December of 1939 the Gestapo ordered the formation of the Judenrat. In early 1941 Jews were ordered to move into the poorest impoverished section of town. In April 1942 deportation began.Hidden Jews and elderly were shot on the spot. Others were taken to the gathering place put on 30 wagons and sent to Belzec- they left behind scores of bodies of those shot.
There is one synagogue that survived because the Germans made use of it. Today it has been renovated- and interestingly it has been done so with funds from Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.

July 17,2010

2010-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am writing to you from Zamosc, Poland. We're about 90 minutes away from Lublin. Besides the hotel not having any air conditioning during an unseasonably warm weather spell throughout Europe, everything is great. We spent the majority of the day at Majdanek concentration camp; at least it feels that way even though we were there just over 3 hours. Majdanek is located about 10 minutes outside of Lublin. It's very easy to visit once you get to Lublin
. Majdanek is especially noteworthy for a few reasons. First, the camp served multiple purposes in its existence. The camp started out as a concentration camp for .It thPOW’s then became a labor camp, ultimately morphing into a death camp. Many of the camps, such as Belzec, Birkenau and Chelmno were only built to murder Jews.
Majdanek was liberated by the Russians in 1944. Majdanek is such a unique concentration camp because it is almost entirely preserved as the Germans abandoned it. For most of the concentration camps the Germans were able to sabotage the main traces of their mass murders; not so with Majdanek. Two gas chambers still remain today, along with the crematoriums.
We visited Bergen Belsen a few days ago. Visiting Majdanek was an entirely different experience because nothing remains at Bergen Belsen. If you didn't know any better, visiting Bergen Belsen is very similar to walking through the woods, admiring the lush vegetation. Majdanek has been preserved throughout the years. Barracks, the gas chambers, the crematorium, guards' towers and so forth still stand today. The first things we noticed when we arrived at the front of Majdanek were the barbed wire and the posts. Many of these posts are the original ones that were installed by the Germans. Barbed wire surrounds the camp's perimeter in different levels. The wire was intended to keep inmates confined and to keep the Polish people away from the camp. Polish people who approached the wire or attempted to smuggle food to the camp inmates risked their lives. Many of the original wooden buildings still stand today. It's important to note that these buildings were built for utility, not for permanence. In other words, the Germans did not intend for them to still be standing today.
If you've ever visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum you have seen the picture of the large pile of hair. At Majdanek there is a collection of human hair preserved in one of the storage barracks. I was shocked when we came upon this display. When inmates were first taken to the camp part of selection involved having their heads shaved. During the camp's existence they collected 730 kg of hair. Hair was collected for mattresses and for slippers to be worn on submarines. Slippers made of human hair would be undetectable to sonar radar. This presentation is controversial for a few reasons. The USHMM presented this as a picture, because Jewish burial customs mandate that hair is a natural part of a person and thus, should be buried with the corpse. However, Poland is predominantly Catholic, and it's unsure whether the collected hair belonged to Jews, Polish people or political prisoners.
One of the most powerful exhibits at the USHMM is the overwhelming pile of shoes. Majdanek has an entire storage barrack literally full of shoes. To give you an idea about Maydanek's destruction, 140,000 Jews were brought to the camp. 78,000 were murdered. When you walk into the storage building shoes are gathered on all sides of the building, along with two large bins in the middle of the building. The reason so many shoes survive at Majdanek today is because Majdanek was a gathering point for luggage and other confiscated materials collected from prisoners at Majdanek and other camps around the area.
Majdanek is unique because it still houses gas chambers as they stood when the Russians liberated the camp. Seeing the gas chambers up close was a very solemn experience. Up to 300 people could be gassed at once. The actual chambers are very compact; I can't even begin to fathom so many people in the chamber struggling to hold on for one last breath.

The heavy steel door closing off the chamber is still attached. If guards wanted to look in and observe the deaths, there was a peep hole for them to watch. Gas chambers were of course used to kill people, but they were also used to disinfect clothes, too.
After leaving the gas chambers and walking throughout the prisoner's barracks, we visited the crematorium. When you walk through this building you first see a room that houses a concrete slab. Before bodies were cremated someone would search the body to make sure there weren't any valuables left on the corpse, such as gold fillings, hidden jewelry and so forth. The German motto during this time was "nothing to be wasted." After a corpse was thoroughly inspected it was put in a storage room. This room also doubled as a place of execution for Polish people suspected of aiding prisoners. After this room we came to the crematorium. Multiple crematoriums still exist today. You can walk around the entire room and view each crematorium from the front and the back. I spent a few minutes walking around this room. For years I've read descriptions of these killing centers, but to see them firsthand was a difficult experience.

On November 3rd, 1943 Nazis murdered 18,000 people in one day. As these murders were taking place, loudspeakers were set up around the area to play music in an attempt to distract people from the sounds of shooting and screaming. This massacre is referred to as ERNTEFEST, or the Harvest Festival. The reason for this morbid play on words is because the massacre fell around the time of year that Germans traditionally celebrated a harvest festival. Erntefest was the most devastating day in terms of how many people were murdered in one day.
The memorial today includes the area where the murders took place, and a large circular monument that contains the remains and ashes of the 18,000 murdered Jews. I found this part of the camp the most difficult to observe because the remains were there in front of us. Outside this memorial are words that translate into “ Let our fate be a warning to you” I was asked to say a few words and to light a candle in memorial. I was touched being asked to do this and felt very connected to all my fellow travelers as I made a point about being a witness and the responsibility of passing this on.

The photos I have posted are graphic, they are real, they are authentic. The shower heads are real and were used to gas innocent Jews, the ovens are real, the barricks are real. When looking at the shoes: rows upon rows I noticed one red shoe - it reminded me of the symbolic red coat of the little girl in “Schindler’s List” but this one was not symbolic - it had belonged to someone .

July 16

2010-07-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm writing to you from a hotel room in Lublin, Poland. Lublin, (pronounced LUBE + Lynn) is a very nice, quaint city. It is considerably different from Warsaw because Lublin has been able to retain a lot of its history, i.e. many of the original buildings still stand today because Lublin wasn't affected as much by World War II compared to what Warsaw experienced. One of our guides, Elaine made the comment this evening that "everything is upside down in Poland." This isn't a criticism on Poland or the Polish people. To put this comment into perspective, there were more Jews in Poland before World War II than any other European country. Plus, Poland is located next to Germany in proximity. Many of the Nazi atrocities took place throughout Poland. To give you an idea about how these atrocities affected Lublin, before World War II Lublin had a Jewish population of 38,000 people. Today there are 26 Jewish people living in Lublin.

We stopped at a shetl in Kazimierz Dolny, a small village that is now a haven for artists. This was a thriving shetl of more than 1 out of 3 people being Jewish. Today there are none. We vistited another Jewish cemetery where the memorial is made up of pieces of headstones that had been used by the Nazi's to pave roads. It is a quiet place on the side of the road. Elaine, one of our leaders of the group, was stopped by a man who was from Canada. He asked her to help him say "Kaddish" because he had been too difficult for him to do so emotionally. She told us this story and said how he thanked her profusely for helping him; yet she said he had helped her. She warned us that her grandparents there, her mother is a survivor.

In this shtetl, many homes are original, thus had been the homes of the Jewish population. These people were rounded up by Battalion 101 taken to the forests that we are seeing through the bus window- and murdered. This town is now a weekend retreat for many- not unlike New Hope,or Sadona, yet few know that a mere 60 years ago this was a bustling thriving place for Jews to live.
The book ORDINARY MEN by Christopher Browning chronicles Police Battalion 101, a group of German policemen responsible for murdering 48,000 Jews and transporting an additional 75,000 Jews to various concentration camps. We followed their initial path on our bus from Warsaw, ultimately ending in Lublin tonight. Police Battalion's first mass murder(s) took place in Jozefow. When we drove by Jozefow this morning I immediately went back to the book. I don't want to say that we are reliving history. That doesn't quite describe this trip. Instead, visiting the places that we've read about in books and discussed in classes has helped to enhance our lessons and credibility when we present this material to our students. It's one thing to read about this and talk about the places and people we encountered in the book. It's another matter to visit the places and provide a first hand account as to what we visited.
We also saw a Yeshiva, which was completed in 1930 and used by hundreds of young Jewish boys to study Torah. Such a place would not have been built unless the people felt there was a future. This, we know was not the case. The Synagogue was spared because the Nazi's used the building as a military hospital. There are plans to reopen the building as a hotel in the near future.

Tomorrow we go deeper into the history as we visit Majdanek concentration camp and drive to Zamosc.

On a lighter note.... I shared delicious perogies in a little cafe with several friends. They were freshly made and just wonderful!

After arriving in Lublin this afternoon we did a walking City tour for a few hours through the old section of Lublin. It was a great and fresh experience to walk throughout Lublin for the first time and see so many beautiful buildings. The tour was somewhat emotional because we visited a building that used to house a Jewish orphanage. Every child who belonged to this orphanage was murdered by the Nazis. I've noticed with myself and other members of this group that we're especially affected by anything that had to do with the children.

The Chopin recital last night was a wonderful experience last evening in Warsaw.I thought about my mom in California and how much she would have loved listening to her favorite composer in a a concert hall, such as this.
We're at the halfway mark of this trip. It's been a once in a life time experience. I expect that the most difficult days are yet to come as we tour more and more of Poland. Regardless, I'm very thankful to be a part of this trip and to experience it with this group of outstanding people.
After dinner we had our first debriefing session as those who wished to express any of their feelings, thoughts, comments did. We have really become very close in 10 short days.

I added a photo of balcony's. They are original and were places where children played, mothers talked to each other etc. You may recognize it as a scene from "Schindler's List." Similar to the film this is a place where the contents of the Jewish families possessions were thrown over these balcony's by SS and Nazi soldiers when they came to 'empty' the ghetto

July 15- day

2010-07-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

July 15,2010

It is hard to keep track of the days. I think today is Thursday. We began the day with a beautiful breakfast. There was almost too much to chose from! Cheeses, pancakes, sausage, beautiful fruit and berries, an assortment of breads along with Yougurts, cereals and fresh roasted coffee: served in a press.

After breakfast our busy day began. We visited the site of the Warsaw ghetto. It was built to contain all the Jews in Warsaw in the beginning and then little by little more and more Jews were confined there until they were deported to death camps. The ghetto was built by the Jews with their own money. On top of the wall, which was 10 feet high was either barbed wire or broken glass. The Ghetto was never referred to as the Warsaw Ghetto but rather the “Jewish living Quarters” The ghetto was 2 ½ square miles with 360,000 human beings initially crowded into the area. Soon more people were contained there from Western Poland, at its height over 470,000 Jews wee in the ghetto. Jews had no means to make money since all their shops were closed and their bank accounts confiscated. Resistance came in the form of spirituality and keeping their customs alive. The Jews held meetings, concerts, made theater productions all within the confines of the walls. The Nazis allows each person to have 180 calories per day. Certainly not enough to sustain life.

To further humiliate the Jews, the Nazis used the Jewish calendar to initiate actions. Jewish holidays were used to announce deportations. 300,000 people were deported on the holiday of Tisha B’Av.

On Jan 18,1943 the first armed resistance of Jews took place in the Warsaw ghetto.

We visited the only remaining section of the wall which exists next to apartment buildings. It is not a place that is crowded with tourists- which I actually appreciated more, as I placed my hand on the wall and just thought about the bravery of these people who were actually just young adults. The oldest of the resistance fighters was 23 yrs old. There was on May 18, a collective suicide as the Nazi’s closed on the the remaining fighters.

The Nazi’s never would actually say the word murder or killing, but rather used positive words like “ Evacuation” which usually refers to being saved. Or referring to a mass murder as a “Harvest Festival.”

On our way to the Jewish Cemetery I asked our guide, Waclaw, ( who is not Jewish) why he became so involved in guiding people though the events of the Holocaust. He told us that he had filled in for a fellow guide, for a group of Jewish tourists and he said “I had an open heart and an open mind and was treated the same way.” He also told us a story of his grandmother and his grandfather who both acted kindly and generously with Jews during the Holocaust.
The Jewish Cemetery was a very emotional experience. The Nazi’s did not destroy the cemetery because they were too busy . They did use some of the head stones for paving roads, but had too much murdering to do. The stones that remained are silent and lonely. There are very few stones on the grave stones because there are no relatives to visit these sites- no one isleft, so it is now up to those who visit to place a stone on these head stones.
Prior to the war this place was a prestigious place to be buried so many prominent Jews who made many contributions to society are buried there.
Vladka Mead has a memorial head stone in memory of her parents. We stopped there and one of our parti lot of quite reflective time in this place.
We visited the Nosyk Synagogue, the cipants said a mournful Kaddish-the prayer for the dead.

We spent time at the only synagogue in Warsaw to be still standing after the war, primarily because it was turned into a stable for the German horses. Our leader, Elaine Culbertson, explained the synagogue and the significance of the services. They have renovated the building and it is quite beautiful.
We then went to see the Memorial to Resistance Fighters which is next to a construction sight of a museum for Jewish History that is being built, we continued on foot to Mila 18 the headquarters of the resistance- a bunker that was used by the fighters. Their remains are there marked by a memorial rock with names etched on the stone. On foot again, we went to the Umchlag Platz the remains of the place where the Jews were brought to the place of deportation . There is little left to mark the place, but nonetheless one can feel the souls all around as common first names are listed to remind us of so many.. so many. Our last stop was the Jewish Historical Institute where we saw an emotional film on the ghetto- one that we all admit we have never seen, Very graphic and hard to absorb. It ended with a mother telling her story about the death of her child and saying “ No one will call me mummy anymore.”

The day concluded with some free time to explore the city and unwind from such an emotionally charged day. We attended a lovely piano concert of Chopin music which really helped to relax us and hear the music,

July 15,2010

2010-07-15T08:35:00.001-07:00

With the seriousness of our journey we all need some down time to enjoy where we are!
Tasting the local fare, and walking down the streets of this old city, with all my new friends! The group photo was taken at the Resistance Fighters Memorial

July 14 afternoon

2010-07-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add a bit about the afternoon as we spent 8 hours on the bus from Berlin to Warsaw. We arrived to the magnificent Bristol Hotel which is in the heart of Warsaw- a bustling metropolis- and sits literally next door to the Royal Palace. Warsaw is also the birthplace of Frederick Chopin, whose heart is buried in a near by church. We will be attending a Chopin concert tomorrow evening.

As I was on the bus I felt as if I was entering the "belly of the beast" since so many Jews who had once lived a normal life with their friends, families, occupations, etc were sent to their deaths. Poland lost more than three million Jews- the largest proportion in Europe. I also felt that I had gone from feast to famine having been in Israel wearing the Star of David proudly and openly to feeling a bit uncomfortable wearing it openly here,( although I am). Culture shock in only three short days.
Tomorrow we will have another busy day visiting the Warsaw ghetto and several other sites including the Nosyk synagogue.

Our schedule is challenging and everyday I am gaining more insight wlong with my new friends and colleagues.

July 14 2010 Warsaw Poland

2010-07-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

July 14,2010

I was not able to Blog yesterday because we had just a busy, emotionally charged day and we did not have dinner until 10 pm. Once we returned to the Hotel Berlin Berlin we had to pack in order to be ready for an early departure to Poland. I am composing this on the bus. We entered Poland about one hour ago, .after an 8 hour ride! I was surprised to learn there is no official border between Poland and Germany. The country side is quaint with many thatch roofed structures.
Poland had a thriving Jewish community before WWII which all came to a halt with the invasion by Germany.

At this time I would like to write about July 13th,
First I would like to mention as a point of trivia and reflection the price of gas! In Israel it was about $7.00 per gallon; in Berlin it was about $6.00 and here in Poland I have seen the equivalent of $6.50.

Yesterday we made a 4 hour trip to Bergen Belsen. concentration camp. This camp originally served at a POW camp, In 1943 the camped changed directions as Jews were sent to this came to be exchanged for Germans and for goods. The POW’s are referenced in documents housed here, as being ‘released” which really meant they were transported to other camps. In 1944 Jews were used as forced labor. Moe than 50,000 died in the last month prior to liberation due to starvation and disease ( such as typhus). Between 1940- and 1943 30,000 POW’s were held at Bergen Belsen. Many of the Jews who survived the Holocaust survived at Bergen Belsen since the camps primary reason for incarcerating Jews was for economic gain. However, once the Camps on the East began to be liberated, they sent thousands of Jews to Bergen Belsen which resulted in severe overcrowding. The same amount of rations ( which was meager to say the least) was now divided amongst 60,000 men women and children as opposed to 15,000 earlier, Disease was rampant and the Nazi’s themselves did not want to enter the camp in its final days.

Our morning began with an introduction by Carola Rudnick from the memorial. She spoke about the specific reasons teachers must teach more than Holocaust education. In addition she shared with some of us that her grandfather had been a member of the SS and she feels a personal responsibility to teach about the Holocaust. Another one of the workshop teachers told us that his grandfather had been a judge who had played a part in enacting the Nuremburg Laws.
Carola swent on to say she was going to give us a “bouquet of ideas” to use in the classroom. The Museum was opened only 3 years ago for the purpose of educating Germans. Second generation family members who must understand themselves and the role their family may have played in this. The video documentaries include both the life of each person prior to the Holocaust and what has happened both during and after in order not to victimize the individual again. The group then was broken up into small study groups, with a person from the museum with a specific agenda. I chose Christian Wolpers a teacher of history who would be talking about the use of art in teaching about the Holocaust. The art can be used as primary documentation because there were no photos or film taken at this camp while it was in operation, only after liberation were the graphic film and photos taken of bull dozers pushing corpses into mass graves for burial. The artwork was done during the camps existence by inmates who at deadly risk and peril, depicted life at the camp and hid their work. These artifacts are the only proof of the daily life at the camp.
Christian began by taking us outside of the main exhibition hall. Having been told that there was ’nothing to see’ at this site due to the fact everything was burnt. The liberators had to destroy what was left due to the diseases that ran amok in the camp. However, in actuality I felt that there was so much to see! As you wander out of the building one notices how the building is built a few feet off of the ground. The reason is that the entire site is considered a Jewish cemetery, therefore it would not be respectful to have the building touch the ground.

We walked down a path, which so many walked before us, and I had to stop and look up at this beautiful blue sky, the lovely little wild flowers growing and think that the victims also saw this sky, but I would venture to say anything else living like flowers or grass became food and was ingested. We stopped at a pile of bricks- where were the remains of the barracks- and the bricks outlined an area of 80X20 in which over 1000 Jews were held. The number did not mean as much as seeing with my eyes such a small area. The bricks have been engraved with the names of people who were at this camp, with their number and date of birth and death or no date of death if they survived. Many rocks have been placed there in respect. There are also artifacts placed there that one can touch and hold like spoons, pieces of a bowl- small items that meant life and death to an individual. We continued on a path that had been the end point for the arrivals who came into the camp via a railway ramp 3 miles out of the camp. The Jews had to walk all the way. There are many houses near by and the people in them have testified that they had seen what was happening, but many felt they could do nothing.

We then walked by many huge mounds of earth that are the actual resting places of the Jews placed in these mass graves. Each one has a marker with the date they were ‘buried’ and the number of people which are interned. There are so many that my vision became blurred as I looked them all. Some contained 500 some 1000, some 200 on and on it went. We also stopped at the memorial headstone for Anne and Margot Frank who are buried somewhere in these mounds of mass graves, Many people have left small mementos at the headstone: rocks, toys, letters, etc are placed gently on the site,

Time restricted us from seeing the remains of the ‘bath house’ or where the crematorium was housed. We entered the exhibition hall which appears to have been planned so carefully, respectful, and with great dignity. The use of space and light is awe inspiring. In the floor are many many artifacts from barbed wire, to small notes which were found, in many cases by local children. They are incased in well lit exhibits on the floor of the museum. Stories told by survivors are interspersed throughout the exhibit. Many things that were told are very difficult to absorb one of which involved cannibalism, but I would rather not dwell on that.. The films that are shown have long pauses- which are done intentionally so that the visitor will stop and take time to listen .

Documents are displayed throughout the exhibit that both serve as primary sources and as stories of POW’s, Jews, Roma, and other victims. Behind a black curtain there are graphic films taken by liberators and press that are placed away from the main exhibit for the discretion of the visitor,

The visit to Bergen Belsen was very personal to me when I looked into the Book of Names and found the name of the person I had done research on for my course at Kean University. My connection from the classroom in New Jersey brought me to the same place where she walked, she suffered and survived.

The day was very full both physically and certainly mentally. Walking there, feeling the road, touching the road and imagining…….

July 13,2010

2010-07-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

It is 6 am in Berlin and we will be heading to Bergen Belsen soon. It is the site of the infamous death camp, and our journey has taken a turn. I feel that the artifacts and photographs we have seen certainly put faces on to both victims and perpetrators, however standing on track 17 made it very personal as the reality is literally under your feet, knowing that the deportees stood there, looking at those same trees that same sky; that may have been as blue as yesterday, as hot as yesterday, or as cold as the winter with the wind blowing relentlessly through the station. Now we travel to a location some, like Anne Frank, were sent to.

We leave for Poland tomorrow and I thought it would be fitting to add the story of Lee Baumwald Lench ;
who is my benefactor for this trip
Lee Baumwald Lench was born in Brody, Poland on November 22, 1933. Her parents Leon and Toby and her sister Frieda led a normal life until the Germans marched into Poland on September 1, 1939. Brody had a large Jewish population about eighty percent Jewish and the rest a mixture of Ukrainians and Poles before the war. After the German invasion, the Jews of Brody were evicted from their homes and put into a ghetto in December of 1942. The Germans regarded the establishment of ghettos in Poland as a provisional matter, and the destructions of those ghettos were started in late 1941 and by the summer of 1942, they were deporting Jews for slaughter to the camps.

The majority of the Brody ghetto Jews were gassed and shipped to concentration and death camps. A kind family employee named Pietro helped her family to escape and hide in a bunker which he dug for them. Hiding in that bunker were her parents, sister and her uncle Hersch. Living in the bunker became a terrible hardship, they could not go out and they suffered from constant hunger. Lee was eight and a half years old at the time of their hiding. Pietro, their savior was not able to help them with much food since he had his own family to feed and food was very scarce. The Gestapo (German police) raided Pietro’s farm because they suspected that he was hiding Jews.

In preparation for their hiding, the Baumwald family brought along anything of value which consisted of money and jewelry. Lee’s uncle Hersch sneaked at night from the bunker to barter for food supplies from the local town’s people on the black market. Twice, he was shot on different outings while trying to forage for food. After the war, he was drafted into the Russian army and never returned. Lee was grateful to her brave uncle Hersch, her mother’s brother who kept them alive while in the bunker.

After the war, Lee and her family spent the next four years in Displaced Person’s camps in Germany. Lee learned Hebrew in a Beis Yaakov School for girls while in Germany.

After the war, Lee’s family came to the United States on the “SS General Hershey” in 1949 to Boston, New York. Lee’s mother Toby died two years later. Lee met her husband Simon (Leczycki) Lench from Lask, Poland, a fellow survivor and they were married in Brooklyn, New York in 1953. Lee met her husband a number of years prior to her marriage. Simon was a builder by profession and he passed away in 1993.

Simon’s parent’s Shiya and Hinda, his sister Jentale, aunts, uncles and cousins were murdered during the Holocaust. Lee and Simon have two children, a son, a daughter and 13 grandchildren.

Lee feels strongly that students must learn about the Holocaust. She sponsored a teacher by the name John Schembari who attended a Seminar about the Holocaust during the summer, sponsored each year by the New Jersey Holocaust Commission. She hopes that John will teach his students about the terrible inhumanities that were perpetrated against the Jewish people during World War II.

Many close members of her family perished, her uncle Mechel and his entire family, her aunt Chaya, her grandmother Malka Blima Apfel Baumwald and many more relatives whose names she can not recall because of her young age during the war.

July 12 continued

2010-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten to mention the memorial in Berlin to the burning of the books. Any books the Nazi's felt were unsuitable to their cause or disagreed with their ideologies were burned, along with any books by Jewish authors. The memorial is on the site of the burning and is an underground empty space with empty book shelves which represents all th books that should have been and were destroyed. The strange thing was the memorial was in the middle of a Fashion exhibition. The memorial is lit up from underneath and you can walk on the glass.
Memorials in Berlin are austere, stark and often in places that you have to really search to find.

July 12,2010

2010-07-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

July 12, 2010

We’ve just returned from a full day here in Berlin. The temperature got well over 100 *F so we took our time and drank lots of water!! The day began with a huge breakfast with lots of sausage and bacon and eggs – different kinds of cheeses, fruits, and my favorite - croissants. They also had Lox and Herring which I plan on trying tomorrow morning.
Our bus headed out to Gruenewald Train Station where over 50,000 Jews were sent to work and death camps. When you walk in, it looks like a pretty little German station and then up the steps to Track 17 where the deportation trains left. It is closed now, and the tracks at the station are filled with new growth and trees. The tracks there are surrounded on both sides by large grates on top of gray stones. On the top of each grate is a date, the number of Jews transported, and where they went. Many of them said Berlin to Theriesenstadt or to Bergen-Belsen. It was very unadorned and at the end, there is a large piece of concrete where an artist had depicted five figures leaving. I found myself closing my eyes to listen to the sound of the train going by and imagine the confusion and fear in the voices of the deportees. What is very amazing is that this station is in the middle of a small neighborhood and surrounded by homes, in addition, there were other trains carrying people to and from the area. Amazing that no one spoke up to protest!! I walked along the platform in silence, stopping at a Yahrzeit candle with some stones which were purposely left on a specific transport date. One must take a moment to pause and look at the numbers of people listed as being deported that day: 50, 100, etc but I noticed one that 101 or 99 which made me think that perhaps the 101 was a new baby or 99 was number 100 who already died? The Nazi's liked round exact numbers.
Next we drove to the other side of Berlin to the conference center in Wannsee where the German officials met to decide how to carry out the “Final Solution” of the Jews. The director of the education department, Wolfe Kaiser, who spoke to us as we toured the museum, which is housed in the actual resort for the German officials. Knowing that these rooms were the actual places where such terrible decisions were made, was poignant. We met in a classroom at the villa and discussed the educational value of the material we had seen and how to use it in a classroom. I walked up the original staircase looking at the original beautiful ceiling thinking that Himmler and Eichmann touched the same banister and walked these stairs, on their way to a meeting that would decide the fate of all the Jews of Europe.
We had our lunch in what seemed to be a greenhouse type of building, but it was a bit cooler than the villa. None of the museums have air conditioning and with the heat so high, many of us were having a hard time keeping our eyes open!!
After lunch, we traveled back into the city of Berlin to the Topography of Terror located on the sight of the former Gestapo Headquarters. It is the present-day name of the site on which the most important institutions of the Nazi apparatus of terror and persecution were located between 1933 and 1945: the headquarters of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), the Reich SS Leadership and Security Serive (SD) of the SS, and, from 1939 on, the Reich Security Main Office. We saw many documents and their translations and several photos that we had never seen before. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Holocaust Memorial, which Deb and I had seen before. Though the set up of the flat stones doesn’t seem to have any meaning, it is seems to be up to the beholder. We’ll talk about that after dinner! An added bonus was seeing and touching remnants of the Berlin Wall. We could picture the happenings of the past! Across from the Holocaust Memorial, there was a sign identifying the site of Hitler’s Bunker. It was totally unobtrusive and we were told that residents allow their animals to use the site for their business.
We’re so glad to be out of the sun and back “home.” Tonight we look forward to a German dinner and a beer!!!
We still have one member who is feeling poorly, but our bumps and bruises are healing!

Sunday July 11

2010-07-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that only a week has gone by since we celebrated July 4th in DC and all met for the first time. it is quite true that we have bonded and become 'family' looking out for one another and enjoying each others points of view.
We had to be out of the hotel by 1 am so Linda and I did not sleep, rather we spent time with Mitch and Nick watching old comedy skits on you tube. The plane ride was long and tiring, everyone slept a little. Leaving Israel was bitter sweet. It is such a special city in a remarkable country.

We changed planes in Frankfurt and arrived to Berlin around 2 pm. They are experiencing a heat wave.Its over 100 degrees F and very sunny. There were a few problems again with luggage as one person's bag was ripped. Finally we arrived at the Berlin hotel, a lovely place that is very close to the center of town. The difference I observed immediately was the Berlin was lush, beautiful, and very European: very different from Israel. They try to conserve ( and rightly so) by having you use your room key to not only open the door but to activate lights and air, so when you leave the room it turns off.

We walked around on our own and ate some local sausage, fries, and some sampled the beer. From there we got daring and began to walk to Brandenburg gate not realizing it was about 4 miles away! We stopped at a statue of Wagner, who was a blatant anti Semite and Hitler's favorite composer: it was strange for me to see a statue erected in his honor. Mitch was determined to get us to the Brandenburg gate which was part of the Wall and now stands as a symbol of unification. Thia was the only opening of the Berlin wall separating East from West. Where we stood was formally East Berlin, we also saw the Hotel Aldon, which is still in existence and was Hitler's favorite hotel.
There was also a pile of shoes that was placed by the UN- I am not sure what they were suppose to represent but I will ask our guide in the morning.

We will be meeting for dinner soon and I will continue and post some new pictures showing the experiences of today.

Tomorrow we really begin our journey back 60 years. We will visit Gurenewald Station where 50,000 Jews were sent to work and death camp, and to Wannsee Conference villa where the Nazi's discussed how to attain the "Final Solution"

July 10 continues

2010-07-10T10:15:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post a few other pictures for today.

July 10,2010

2010-07-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

Before I go into todays adventures I wanted to add something interesting about yesterday. When we all placed notes into the Kotel (Western Wall), it was explained that from time to time the notes are removed because there are so many, and they are considered Holy- therefore the notes are given a Jewish burial and never destroyed.

Today was a day of fun- a day to realize that we can not always dwell on the serious aspects of our journey but must stop to reflect and smell the roses! We started out early and headed to Masada. The place where about 900 Jews held off the Roman soldiers and decided it was best to die rather than to surrender to the Romans. In the Jewish faith suicide is a sin, therefore they drew lots after each head of household killed their own wives and children. There were 10 men left, and one man was to kill the others and then himself therefore one only person technically committed suicide.
The road to Masada passes through the West Bank where we saw Bedouin encampments, along with their sheep, mules and camels. We began to descend down below sea level towards Masada. Once there we took the gondola up ( when I was here 35 years ago I climbed up and down the snake path- a right of passage for Jewish people). We were given the tour by our guide Charles- who has been with us for the time in Israel- seeing the fresco's the places where food was stored, baths taken and even sauna's!
Incredible how the tiles are still viable and beautiful.
We had lunch in En Gedi and went into the Dead Sea. That was strange and grueling!
We forgot to bring our shoes along and the rocky beach was 120 Degrees F. Once in the water we tried to get to the mud area, some of us succeeded unscathed others, like myself, had slight injuries- I have a bruised toe, my friend a bruised hand. We floated around for a bit, and headed back to the bus where we then traveled to the Oasis. That was really an Oasis in the desert, lush, green, and pockets of fresh water pools. We walked up to the waterfall and jumped into this refreshing pool of cool water and went under the waterfall. It was extremely hot and one of the particpants had a bout with heat exhaustion. Once we returned back to the hotel some of us went to the pool to relax and then had dinner. We have to be up at 12:30 am in order to get to the airport for our flight to Frankfurt then to Berlin.
So I do not think I will bother to sleep at all tonight.

We all understand that being in Israel first gives us the 'light' at the end of the tunnel that resulted in a new life for so many Jews who survived the Holocaust. The next part of the trip will be emotional and will allow us to better appreciate the life that has been built here in Erez Israel.

July 9,2010

2010-07-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

We started the day at Yad Vashem and a lecture on the Righteous people who saved Jews risking their own lives and often those of their own families. We visited the art museum that had art work created after the war andmany Holy sites to Christens including the Gethsamie, - where Jesus supposedly awaited sentencing. We visited another exhibit with pieces of incredible art that had been smuggled or hidden during the Holocaust,Our group participated in a ceremony honoring the victims of the Holocaust in the Hall of remembrance: a place of quiet solitude and reflection. Two of our group members read poignant poems as we all looked on in silent reverence. We left Yad Vashem and spent the rest of the day in the Old City. We visited Mary's Grotto and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Certainly these places held special meaning to the Christan members of the group. What impressed me was that while we were in the square in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, we heard the call to prayer from the Muslim quarter from the Minaret, the Jews were praying at the Kotel ( Western Wall), the Armenians were holding a service going through the square, while a group of Italian Christians were simulating the stations of the Cross. I felt like I was in the center of the Universe, where all the major religions of the world came together, each separate yet each playing a part in the other. Truly an amazing feeling and experience. Whether one is religious or not; one is in humble awe knowing that thousands of years ago these same streets were filled with people,which included Jesus, King Herod, and the father of Islam. We walked down the Via Del Larosa, and to the Jaffa gate, the path may have looked the same 3000 years ago. The Old City is an amazing experience and one comes away with a strange sense looking out to the Golden Dome of the Rock, and to the left is the Western Wall and to the right is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher- all the major religions of the world within your vision.
We ended the day with a traditional Shabbat dinner in the hotel with Kaddish blessings said over the bread and wine.

PS some bags did show up but several are still missing. One of our group is ill and did not participate today. Tomorrow we go to Masada and the Dead Sea, pack and have to leave the hotel at 1 am to fly to Germany.

July 8,2010

2010-07-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have to begin by sharing the insight of my daughter. I emailed her telling her that I have not received my luggage yet,the airline has misplaced most of our group's luggage, she emailed me back reminding me the WHY of being here and what it was like to be told that your belongings would be returned to you once you reached your destination but never did.... a small reminder.

Today we spent the entire day at Yad Vashem. It is a sprawling campus with many exhibits and memorials that are interactive as one walks down the streets into catacomb like exhibits. The main museum is quite different from the USHMM in Washington.The architecture is magnificent and well thought out to create an interactive experience for the visitors.

We has several lectures today. First was Shumamit Imber, Director is Intl studies. I was suppose to hear her at Metro West a while back but she was unable to attend, making this lecture more valuable. A dynamic educator she gave us a real sense of how to teach the Holocaust in an appropriate and meaningful way to our students.

Our second speaker was a professor: Guy Meron who spoke about Jews and Non Jews in Europe in the 19=20 Century.

Our final speaker of the day was Prof Yehuda Bauer who spoke about the "Unpreceedentendness' of the Holocaust. A wonderful speaker that conveyed the importance of the concept that this being unprecedented as opposed to "unique"

Personally I was awed by the railway car exhibit which is exhibited on rail tracks high above the museum. Outside the museum the poem by Dan Pagis is engraved " Written in Pencil in a Sealed Railway Car." I have used this poem in class and it has remained one of the most poignant poems That I have ever read.

Our evening concluded with a sumptuous dinner and a visit by 2 Israeli High School teachers who shared their methods of teaching the Holocaust to their students. Frankly, I never gave much thought to the fact that teens today in Israel must also be taught about the Holocaust. Regardless of the fact many of their relatives may have a direct connection, they still may not have the information and tools to understand.

The evening concluded with a visit to Ben Yehuda street to sample the Gelati, and to purchase some gifts. I purchased a skirt to use tomorrow at the Kotel ( Western Wall).

Today was a long day but one that truly gave me a sense of why I am here, why I want to be here, and why I want to teach.

2010-07-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

We had an uneventful but crowded flight to Frankfort, Germany with just a few hours sleep. The Frankfort airport is huge, and we had to go through Israeli security again - they are indeed very thorough!! Unfortunately, we were in for a rude awakening when we landed in Tel Aviv as none of our baggage was on the plane - in fact there was no baggage on the plane as there had been a computer failure in the baggage department at Frankfort, so no baggage was sorted! Luckily most of us had packed an extra pair of shorts and some necessary items, though we did stop at a mall on the way home! They tell us that we will be getting our luggage tomorrow! We'll see!
Israel and Jerusalem are beautiful. Our hotel, the Mount Zion Hotel is magnificent, and we keep getting lost - it is on the hill overlooking the old city. We ate a scrumptious dinner together and called it a day!
We have a big day tomorrow with an all day visit to Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust and Resistance Museum. I'm sure it will be both educational and emotional.
I did get the chance to meet up with an old friend who I have not seen for 35 years, the highlight was eating street falafal!

July 6,2010

2010-07-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Waiting at the airport for our flight later on today. This morning we walked in the 100 degree heat from the hotel to the museum. We participated in several seminars about artifacts and photographs. Looking at the photos from a different view point, one needs to consider who took the photo and why. Many photos were 'staged' by the Nazi's but they do not detract from the impact to the viewer as to its content, however, one must think about what is in the photos and why they were taken. Many photos were taken clandestinely by Jewish prisoners and often were hidden. The photos we looked at included views of Jews that displayed hope, love of culture, religion and family. The Nazi's sought to dehumanize the Jews- as shown often in the photographs they took, and the Jewish photographers embraced the individual, and the humanity that was never lost.

July 5,2010

2010-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

July 5,2010

Today my roommate and I went to the American History Museum and were able to view many interesting exhibits about "Americana." One of the highlights being the counter where 4 African American college students staged a non violent sit in at a Woolworths' store. They were refused service and were subjected to name calling, spitting, and beatings- however they did not give up, which sparked new laws which outlawed such unfair practices.

The afternoon was spent with all the participants, discussing our journey overseas, which begins tomorrow. We represent over 15 states and range in age from 20-63 years of age.The group it ethnically and religiously varied. We toured the museum focusing on artifacts and discussing the ones that were of particular interest.

Dinner was with the group with the addition of Mr Roman Kent, a Holocaust survivor whose story may be found at the following linkhttp://www.echoesandreflections.org/pdfs/bios/Kent.Roman.pdf

July 4,2010 Washington DC

2010-07-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

The first night in Washington DC was spent with new friends and thousands of people who were celebrating July 4th. I was able to spend this time with my amazing son Ross and his equally wonderful girlfriend Diana.
Fireworks were awesome. Now I am preparing for our first day as a group. We will be meeting at the USHMM for a seminar later on today.