June17, The flight was delayed but other than that it was fine. The hotel is beautiful and walking distance from everything. I made sure to get my street fallafal- with the works. I walked to Ben Yedudah street and tomorrow I will go to the Kotel to place the notes in the wall that wre given to me. It is my humble pleasure to do so. Jerusalem is truly a beautiful city; ancient and pulsating with life of centuries gone by. I love being here!

The day before June 15, 2012

I Leave tomorrow afternoon! Very nervous and excited about all the new people I will meet, the historians I will have the humble pleasure of learning from, and of course being in Ertz Israel!

10 DAYS!!!

Less than two weeks! I changed hotels to be closer to the Old City. Trying to get m things together and hope I can consolidate. I will be blogging as often as I can.

39 days until Israel!

I am counting the days until I leave for Israel! I have been studying Hebrew on my computer, and hope not to make a fool of myself trying to communicate. Today I received information on the seminar and it appears intense and wonderful. I hope my friends, and students will take time to read my blog. Toda Raba

I will once again be traveling on another adventure! I am very excited and grateful that Metro West Holocaust Council has given me a scholarship to attend the summer seminar and international conference at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem this summer! I need to change my profile picture since 2 years have passed. I will be blogging once again - as the day nears. Right now I am still trying to make a success of my first Holocaust Genocide class and hope what I learn this summer will be infused into my class in September.

Thank you

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

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.