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.

July 30,2010

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

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

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

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.