Journey to Poland: Day 1

Our trip to Poland was filled with enlightening experiences and an idea of what the Jews might have gone through during the Holocaust. We spent 5 days traveling across the country to see different places that the Jews inhabited and/or were murdered in. We saw cemeteries, concentration camps, shtetls, yeshivas, cities and towns, ghettos, Schindler's factory, synagogues, monuments, and museums. In each place we learned so much about our history as Jews and how they lived their lives in this region. Overall this week, though sad and depressing at some points, was very worth while and life changing and I'm happy that we went on this mesa to Poland.

Day 1 started when we woke up very early to catch our flight to Warsaw, Poland. After a mediocre flight, we poured into the Warsaw airport in our usual noisy, messy fashion. As expected, we were tired and hoping to sleep but, not surprisingly, we would have to wait several hours to reach the hotel. We met our two pilots, Khrys and Jed, who would be showing us around Poland, then proceeded to board the bus. After a short while we reached our first destination of the day: The Warsaw Cemetery. We saw many graves and learned about the writings and symbols carved into the tombstones. For example, two hands in a blessing motion represent a Cohen, while a broken tree represents a life cut short, and going further into that, a broken candle specifically represents a female life that was cut short. There were also letters that symbolized certain phrases like "of blessed memory". In addition we saw the graves of some very important people including Abraham Perlmutter, Antony Eisenbaum, Barack Sennenberg, and Adam Czerniakow. Abraham, who lived from 1844-1930, was a scholar who changed the rules to allow people to be in the army. Antony was a student and an assimilationist who lived from 1791-1852. Barack was a very wealthy merchant who was known for his charity and tzadaka, he currently has the most detailed grave in the cemetery. Adam was the director of an orphanage who tried to quit  and save the orphans but wasn't able to and ended up committing suicide because he couldn't bear his job. One of the more interesting graves was that of Zamenhof, a man who came up with a language he hoped would be universal called Esperanto.

Barack Sennenberg's Grave

Zamenhof's Grave

One of the more recent graves

After lunch we went to the Warsaw Ghetto and on a memorial walk. We saw the square where people were chosen to either live or be sent to camps as well. The first thing we did was see the largest remaining section of the wall, which surrounded the ghetto during the Holocaust. Today, it stands between two buildings, and serves as a reminder of the past. From there we went to a memorial where the Ghetto square used to be. The memorial itself is shaped almost like a tombstone, has a stripe like a talis, and has a piece in the middle missing so you can see a tree growing in the space between the walls. We continued walking and passed several slabs of rock that were memorials for different people. We learned about different ways people survived, called iberlaben, during the Holocaust. Many people were faced with impossible choices and had to do what they thought was best. There was a Doctor who used her own cyanide to kill the children in the hospital so they wouldn't be killed by Nazis or sent to camps. There was a man who set up a group called the Oneg Shabbat, who collected documents and proof of the Holocaust and buried it. Two of the three boxes have been recovered and offer an extensive amount of evidence of the Holocaust. The couriers were a group of women who left the Ghettos to carry messages to and from each Ghetto as well as smuggle in useful items such as ammunition, newspapers, medicine, food, etc. We have so much more information because of these women and they helped save many lives. There was another man who was in charge of an orphanage and even though he was given the chance, he never left his kids. When it was time for them to be sent to a Concentration Camp, he dressed them in their best Shabbat clothes and went with them. Because of him, those kids had one last good day and died knowing they were loved. The last memorial we saw was that of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters who managed to fight off the Nazis for 3 weeks before being defeated, this was the same amount of time it took the Nazis to take over Poland. 

Remaining part of the Ghetto wall

Memorial in the Ghetto square

Memorial for the Ghetto Fighters

Day 1 was a very busy day and we saw so many different things. We walked through a cemetery and saw the Ghetto wall and went on a memorial walk. Many people had to make impossible decisions during the Holocaust. Two examples of impossible choices are the doctor who killed all the children with her own cyanide to prevent a worse fate or the director of the orphanage who dressed the children in their best clothes and went to the Concentration Camp with them. If you were put in their shoes, how do you think you would respond?