Memory & Meaning: March 13th

We went to the Wlodowa Shul, which was absolutely beautiful. We had more group discussions inside the synagogue and afterwards looked around and took pictures.

inside the synagogue

right outside the synagogue



Later that day, we drove to Sobibor death camp/memorial. Basically nothing is left except memorials. It was just unbelievable to even be there. Again, I just cannot even explain how I felt being there. Just walking around knowing that thousands of people died there...I don't know. This camp was destroyed after the war, so the only thing left were the train tracks and one cattle car. In this camp, the minute people pulled up and got off the cattle cars, they would walk down an alley straight to the gas chambers. Just knowing that makes me so sad. Once you walked down that pathway, you were never seen again. No one ever came back. The pathway was actually one of the most beautiful sceneries I have seen in my life. How can a place just be so beautiful and peaceful, yet a place that once used to be a place of death, cruelty, and torture? How can someone be so cruel? How does someone just tell thousands of people to go to a gas chamber so you can die? How? So many questions that will never be answered.

                               

many memorials

the pathway to the gas chambers

After going to Sobibor, we went to a place called Izbica Shetetl. When I got off the bus, I fell straight on my butt. It was pretty funny haha I wasn’t really embarrassed since basically every fell because it was so slippery. But we walked up a hill to another memorial. The hill was also extremely slippery….so many people fell. Once we got to the top, we looked at some memorials and a mass grave of around 80,000 people. I really can’t even comprehend that number…just so unbelievable.  We were not really there for too long…maybe about an hour or so.  Trying to get down that hill was such an ordeal though. You actually could not go down without falling at least twice. I just slid down it though. It was just less painful that way haha.  Once we finally made it back to the bus, we drove to Zamosc town square. Everyone started throwing snowballs everywhere and at everyone so that was kind of annoying. But it was a much lighter and happier event because everyone was laughing again. We walked around the town for a short period of time though. The buildings were very colorful and so beautiful. We got back on the bus after like 20 minutes, went to our hotel, checked in, ate, and all went to bed. It was such an exhausting and long day.