Auschwitz Birkenau Memorials
I actually don't even know where to begin. Again, I just have so many questions that will probably be forever unanswered. I could never imagine being in such an awful place. I walked around Auschwitz with an Israeli flag attached to my back the whole time we were there. It made me so proud to be Israeli and to be representing a Jewish state in the very place that wanted to wipe out every single Jew. The first few minutes we walked in, we saw a group of Israelis waving their Israeli flags and singing their Israeli songs. It was amazing to see so much Israeli pride.
I really wonder what life would be like if the Holocaust never happened. I really think about it all the time...would some of my close friends even be here now? What would the world be like now? Again, just unanswered questions. I never really understood how a person just thinks of something like the Holocaust. Who just thinks, "Oh, I want to kill every single Jew on the face of the earth??" I guess only a psycho would. Also, who even thinks of stuff like that...like ways to kill a person in the worst way possible? Just hearing all the stories are so interesting, but so sad. Hannah told us her grandmothers story in Auschwitz. It was really interesting and is quite a miracle story. She talked about how her grandmother escaped Auschwitz. She said she would dig a hole under the fence every day until it was big enough for her to fit through it. Then, her mother (Hannahs great grandmother) said to just survive by eating berries and grass in the forest so that's what her grandmother did. Her grandmother got very sick in the forest from eating berries and grass and she passed out. Some French Partisons found her and helped her. She got on a boat to America and found her father and mother on the same boat. There's more to this story, but I just found it very interesting.
But Just walking around in the camp makes me wonder how anyone could even escape? I feel like it would be so hard and you have to be super brave to do something like that. There were literally guard towers everywhere and barbed wire fences. I probably would not be brave enough to do something like that. I actually really look up to the people who either survived or escaped the concentration camps. Not that I don't look up to the ones who survived, but I just think if you were able to escape or survive a place like that? That's amazing. Another thing that really really struck me was the weather. How could anyone survive the awful weather? I literally had 8 layers on, 4 pairs of pants on, 4 pairs of really thick and warm socks, t3 hats, and 2 pairs of gloves and I was still FREEZING. I was numb by the time we left. I actually could not feel my feet and to think these people may not have even had socks? They were given a thin layer of clothing too. I just don't understand how they did it. How could someone torture another person like that? The thing is that it was March...like I can't even imagine what it was like during the winter time. It was also one of the coldest winters in 1944-1945, so I can't imagine what that was like. It was around -4 C when we were there..so like in the 20's. It was also windy, which just made it colder too. I hate the cold so being out there for a few hours was really hard...not just for me, but for everyone. I'm pretty sure every person was freezing no matter how many layers they had on.
Another thing that I did not realize was how big Auschwitz was. I thought it was like 10 times smaller. I also did not realize how many camps they had. I thought it was just one, but there are actually three...which are all huge. I thought Auschwitz would be the size of Majdanek (that's the first camp we went to). There were just endless buildings all around Auschwitz. Each building was used for something different. Some were for the gas chambers and others were for bedrooms. In the gas chamber room you could still see the blue from the gas. In the rooms where they slept, it was also really cold. They did not have any heat unless they worked for it. They had to get the coal themselves to get the heater to work. It required so much work, so most of the time they just froze.
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| this is where they slept |
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| the gas chamber room |
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| This is their bathroom...they were only to go at certain times during the day for a certain amount of time. |
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| Behind the gate is where the Nazis would shoot people |
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| millions of shoes from all the people who were killed.... |
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| A building that was burned right before the war ended |
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So many pictures of families killed in the Holocaust that were found after the war
After Auschwitz, we got back of the bus and no one said a word. Everyone was exhausted, sad, and just had so many emotions. There was nothing to say. We drove for about two hours or so back to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we had some free time before Shabbat. Everyone either slept or just got ready for Shabbos. We left around 5 and walked to a synagogue. It was one of the most beautiful synagogues I've seen. It had so much color and life in it. It was also a beautiful service. Everyone was dancing and singing so joyfully. We came from one of the worst places in a world that wanted to wipe out every Jew to a place that was so happy and wonderful full of Jews. It really made me so proud to be Jewish. It was so wonderful and I could not stop smiling. So much Joy and Happiness. It was really the most perfect way to end an awful and sad day! <3
xoxo Simcha |
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