Unfortunately, I was unable to blog yesterday due to the wifi at the hotel being difficult. I was upset that I wasn't able to blog because I had something on my heart from yesterday's experience. My blog would not have been a long blog - the poem that I would choose to use would do a better job of conveying my feelings than I could in words. I will write about my experience yesterday towards the end of today's blog.
It took me a while, but I made the realization that Stephen and Elaine have created this trip in a chronological manner. Every site that we have gone to will be followed up ultimately by the camp or killing center where those perpetrated against were sent. For instance, we spent time in the Galicia district - then the next day, we went to Belzec killing center, which is where a majority of Jews, Poles, and Gypsies from Galicia were killed. Then, we spent some time in Lublin, and then the next day (yesterday), we went to Majdanek, which was made into a killing center to kill a large percentage of the Lublin Jews. It is obvious that it has taken Elaine and Stephen a year to prepare for this trip - I am quite grateful for this opportunity.
One of the fascinating lessons I have learned (out of many), is that generalization cannot be done in teaching the Holocaust. I have always heard do NOT generalize when I have read books on how to teach the Holocaust, but until I've actually seen the sites and learned the stories from survivors and read testimonies, I never knew the full meaning. EVERY SINGLE CAMP I have visited served a different purpose! And EVERY SINGLE SURVIVOR has a different path and a different story. I will be much more cautious in my teaching of the Holocaust now that I have understood and seen that generalization can actually deter people from what actually happened. We don't intentionally try to generalize - it's just hard to not generalize when you have not seen the actual sites. Now, by witnessing these sites with my own eyes, I feel that I am a better teacher and a better human being.
Anyways, I just had to get that side story out of the way - I will get off my soap box and share my day with you. :)
Today, we got to visit the Lodz (pronounced like wuh-dch; that's the best way I know to explain) ghetto. Lodz was unique because it was the second largest ghetto - the first being Warsaw, which is where I will be located for the remainder of the trip. The other interesting part about Lodz is that it is located in German-occupied Poland and not the General Government. One of the things I learned is that because it was in German-occupied Poland, the Nazis allowed the ghetto to have a better upkeep. That doesn't mean that disease and starvation and overcrowding were not running rampant; however, take a look at the Jewish cemetery pictures I am uploading below. Do you notice how the tombstones are untouched? Many of them are from the 1800s. Another interesting aspect is that people were given a proper burial when they died in the ghetto. The saddest part is there are thousands and thousands of tombstones and markers with no names. You can see those pictures below as well. We paid a special tribute to a grandmother of a survivor. One of the participants of the trip asked us to help him find the tombstone of his survivor's grandmother. We finally found the tombstone and we had a small memorial service. I thought that it was quite touching, and even though most of us never met the survivor, we all felt a connection.
The Lodz ghetto (also known as Litzmannstadt ghetto) was transformed into a major industrial center. A very controversial character in the Judenrat was Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. He was over the Judenrat, and he made his people work extremely hard for the Nazi Germans. He firmly believed that if they would work extremely hard, then why would the Nazis have a need to kill them? His theory may have been correct; because of its productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until August 1944. Unfortunately, it would be the last ghetto to be liquidated - a total of 204,000 people passed through the ghetto entrance gates, and only 800 were there when the Soviets arrived. (About 10,000 survived the war in other places.) Rumkowski and his family would be among one of the last groups deported to Auschwitz where he perished either by the ride on the cattle car or in the gas chamber.
The second place we visited was the Radegast. The Radegast is a huge historical significance to the Lodz ghetto. This is the railroad center where thousands of people were sent from the Lodz ghetto to Chelmno (a killing center that used trucks with exhaust to murder it's victims) and Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was amazed at the memorial that was placed at the Radegast. On the tracks, there is the cattle car opened for people to enter if they choose to. I struggled walking on the original platform and just the mere thought of stepping into the cattle car made me nauseous. One of the ironic signs I noticed was one placed by the museum workers - there was a sign that said, "For safety reasons, no more than 20 people are to be in the cattle car at one time." I thought this was ironic especially seeing how anywhere from 80 to 100 people would be placed in one cattle car during deportation. I thought the memorial was absolutely beautiful. As you walk through the years, you can see the deportation lists of people that came through the Radegast. At the ending of the memorial, there is a makeshift crematorium, and in big letters, it states, "Thou shall not kill." Pictures can be seen below. I definitely had an eerie feeling as I walked up the platform to the cattle car...there is no emotion that can describe that feeling.
Right now, I am on the bus headed to Warsaw. (I got smart - on the long bus rides, I would type my blog on my ipad, and then when I have wifi at the hotel, I would upload my blog to the site.) Before I end today's blog, I would like to tell you about yesterday.
Yesterday, we visited Majdanek. Originally created as a labor camp, Majdanek will become a killing center. Majdanek is the only one of the six killing centers that has its gas chamber still intact, and yes, we walked through the gas chamber. There was something about Majdenek that spoke to me - maybe it was the wide-openness of the camp or maybe it was the lack of visitors or maybe it was the fact that I walked through a room that led to death of thousands of innocent people - but Majdanek spoke to me.
Another unique aspect of Majdanek is there is a massive dome at the end of the camp - and under this concrete dome lay the ashes of thousands of people. Seriously...the ashes are out in the open for people to see. It is there that we lit 6 candles and had a memorial for those of Majdanek.
One of the hardest parts about Majdanek was entering one of the barracks to see shoes of victims. Now, I have seen shoes at the United States Holocaust Museum...behind glass. I have seen shoes at Auschwitz...behind glass. But at Majdanek, thousands and thousands of shoes were in wired cages that I could touch. The smell of leather and the ability to touch a shoe with my hands led to overwhelming emotions. I remember distinctly looking at certain shoes and wondering what that shoe could tell me about the life of someone who perished in the Holocaust. High heels, sports shoes, walking shoes, flat shoes....shoes, shoes, and more shoes. Therefore, I feel it is best to end my blog today with this meaningful poem:
A Mountain of Shoes
By: Moishe Shulstein
I saw a mountain higher than Mt. Blanc
And more holy than the mountain of Sinai, not in a dream.
It was real.
On this world it stood. Such a mountain I saw
of Jewish shoes in Majdanek. Such a mountain,
Such a mountain I saw. And suddenly
a strange thing happened. The mountain moved,
moved....
and the thousands of shoes arranged themselves by size
by pairs
and in rows
and moved.
Hear! Hear the march
hear the shuffle of shoes left behind - that which remained from small, from large
from each and everyone.
Make way for the rows
for the pairs
for the generations for the years.
The shoe army - it moves and moves.
"We are the shoes
we are the last witnesses
we are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers, from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,
and because we are only made of stuff and leather and not of blood and flesh
each one of us avoided the hell-fire. We shoes
that used to go strolling in the market
or with the bride and groom to the chuppa, we shoes from simple Jews
from butchers and carpenters
from crocheted booties of babies
just beginning a walk and go
on happy occasions, weddings and even until the time of giving birth, to a dance, to
exciting places
to life...
or quietly...to a funeral unceasingly we go.
We tramp.
The hangman never had a chance to snatch us into his sack of loot, now we go to HIM.
Let everyone hear the steps which flow as tears,
the steps that measure out the judgment."
I saw a mountain higher than Mt. Blanc
and more holy than the mountain of Sinai.
It took me a while, but I made the realization that Stephen and Elaine have created this trip in a chronological manner. Every site that we have gone to will be followed up ultimately by the camp or killing center where those perpetrated against were sent. For instance, we spent time in the Galicia district - then the next day, we went to Belzec killing center, which is where a majority of Jews, Poles, and Gypsies from Galicia were killed. Then, we spent some time in Lublin, and then the next day (yesterday), we went to Majdanek, which was made into a killing center to kill a large percentage of the Lublin Jews. It is obvious that it has taken Elaine and Stephen a year to prepare for this trip - I am quite grateful for this opportunity.
One of the fascinating lessons I have learned (out of many), is that generalization cannot be done in teaching the Holocaust. I have always heard do NOT generalize when I have read books on how to teach the Holocaust, but until I've actually seen the sites and learned the stories from survivors and read testimonies, I never knew the full meaning. EVERY SINGLE CAMP I have visited served a different purpose! And EVERY SINGLE SURVIVOR has a different path and a different story. I will be much more cautious in my teaching of the Holocaust now that I have understood and seen that generalization can actually deter people from what actually happened. We don't intentionally try to generalize - it's just hard to not generalize when you have not seen the actual sites. Now, by witnessing these sites with my own eyes, I feel that I am a better teacher and a better human being.
Anyways, I just had to get that side story out of the way - I will get off my soap box and share my day with you. :)
Today, we got to visit the Lodz (pronounced like wuh-dch; that's the best way I know to explain) ghetto. Lodz was unique because it was the second largest ghetto - the first being Warsaw, which is where I will be located for the remainder of the trip. The other interesting part about Lodz is that it is located in German-occupied Poland and not the General Government. One of the things I learned is that because it was in German-occupied Poland, the Nazis allowed the ghetto to have a better upkeep. That doesn't mean that disease and starvation and overcrowding were not running rampant; however, take a look at the Jewish cemetery pictures I am uploading below. Do you notice how the tombstones are untouched? Many of them are from the 1800s. Another interesting aspect is that people were given a proper burial when they died in the ghetto. The saddest part is there are thousands and thousands of tombstones and markers with no names. You can see those pictures below as well. We paid a special tribute to a grandmother of a survivor. One of the participants of the trip asked us to help him find the tombstone of his survivor's grandmother. We finally found the tombstone and we had a small memorial service. I thought that it was quite touching, and even though most of us never met the survivor, we all felt a connection.
The Lodz ghetto (also known as Litzmannstadt ghetto) was transformed into a major industrial center. A very controversial character in the Judenrat was Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. He was over the Judenrat, and he made his people work extremely hard for the Nazi Germans. He firmly believed that if they would work extremely hard, then why would the Nazis have a need to kill them? His theory may have been correct; because of its productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until August 1944. Unfortunately, it would be the last ghetto to be liquidated - a total of 204,000 people passed through the ghetto entrance gates, and only 800 were there when the Soviets arrived. (About 10,000 survived the war in other places.) Rumkowski and his family would be among one of the last groups deported to Auschwitz where he perished either by the ride on the cattle car or in the gas chamber.
The second place we visited was the Radegast. The Radegast is a huge historical significance to the Lodz ghetto. This is the railroad center where thousands of people were sent from the Lodz ghetto to Chelmno (a killing center that used trucks with exhaust to murder it's victims) and Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was amazed at the memorial that was placed at the Radegast. On the tracks, there is the cattle car opened for people to enter if they choose to. I struggled walking on the original platform and just the mere thought of stepping into the cattle car made me nauseous. One of the ironic signs I noticed was one placed by the museum workers - there was a sign that said, "For safety reasons, no more than 20 people are to be in the cattle car at one time." I thought this was ironic especially seeing how anywhere from 80 to 100 people would be placed in one cattle car during deportation. I thought the memorial was absolutely beautiful. As you walk through the years, you can see the deportation lists of people that came through the Radegast. At the ending of the memorial, there is a makeshift crematorium, and in big letters, it states, "Thou shall not kill." Pictures can be seen below. I definitely had an eerie feeling as I walked up the platform to the cattle car...there is no emotion that can describe that feeling.
Right now, I am on the bus headed to Warsaw. (I got smart - on the long bus rides, I would type my blog on my ipad, and then when I have wifi at the hotel, I would upload my blog to the site.) Before I end today's blog, I would like to tell you about yesterday.
Yesterday, we visited Majdanek. Originally created as a labor camp, Majdanek will become a killing center. Majdanek is the only one of the six killing centers that has its gas chamber still intact, and yes, we walked through the gas chamber. There was something about Majdenek that spoke to me - maybe it was the wide-openness of the camp or maybe it was the lack of visitors or maybe it was the fact that I walked through a room that led to death of thousands of innocent people - but Majdanek spoke to me.
Another unique aspect of Majdanek is there is a massive dome at the end of the camp - and under this concrete dome lay the ashes of thousands of people. Seriously...the ashes are out in the open for people to see. It is there that we lit 6 candles and had a memorial for those of Majdanek.
One of the hardest parts about Majdanek was entering one of the barracks to see shoes of victims. Now, I have seen shoes at the United States Holocaust Museum...behind glass. I have seen shoes at Auschwitz...behind glass. But at Majdanek, thousands and thousands of shoes were in wired cages that I could touch. The smell of leather and the ability to touch a shoe with my hands led to overwhelming emotions. I remember distinctly looking at certain shoes and wondering what that shoe could tell me about the life of someone who perished in the Holocaust. High heels, sports shoes, walking shoes, flat shoes....shoes, shoes, and more shoes. Therefore, I feel it is best to end my blog today with this meaningful poem:
A Mountain of Shoes
By: Moishe Shulstein
I saw a mountain higher than Mt. Blanc
And more holy than the mountain of Sinai, not in a dream.
It was real.
On this world it stood. Such a mountain I saw
of Jewish shoes in Majdanek. Such a mountain,
Such a mountain I saw. And suddenly
a strange thing happened. The mountain moved,
moved....
and the thousands of shoes arranged themselves by size
by pairs
and in rows
and moved.
Hear! Hear the march
hear the shuffle of shoes left behind - that which remained from small, from large
from each and everyone.
Make way for the rows
for the pairs
for the generations for the years.
The shoe army - it moves and moves.
"We are the shoes
we are the last witnesses
we are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers, from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,
and because we are only made of stuff and leather and not of blood and flesh
each one of us avoided the hell-fire. We shoes
that used to go strolling in the market
or with the bride and groom to the chuppa, we shoes from simple Jews
from butchers and carpenters
from crocheted booties of babies
just beginning a walk and go
on happy occasions, weddings and even until the time of giving birth, to a dance, to
exciting places
to life...
or quietly...to a funeral unceasingly we go.
We tramp.
The hangman never had a chance to snatch us into his sack of loot, now we go to HIM.
Let everyone hear the steps which flow as tears,
the steps that measure out the judgment."
I saw a mountain higher than Mt. Blanc
and more holy than the mountain of Sinai.