We woke up, ate, got on the bus, & then drove to the city of Lublin. We went and stood in the exact spot of the Lublin ghetto. It's just very hard to imagine only 70 years ago, the Nazi's were trying to take over and just wipe out all the Jews.
Afterwards, we had lunch on the bus and drove to Majdanek Concentration Camp. When we first drove up & I saw the camp, shivers simply ran down my spine. I became kind of emotional, but I can't really tell you the feeling I felt. I've been learning about the Holocaust my whole entire life just by seeing pictures or movies and I was suddenly at the exact place where it all happened. It was hard to imagine that was where thousands of Jews were killed by the Nazis. I just had so many different questions and thoughts racing through my mind. Once we got off the bus, we walked around the camp. I had so many layers on and was freezing the whole time. I literally could not stop thinking about how the people survived the freezing and cold weather with just one thin layer on and no socks. How did some of them survive the harsh winters there? It's only March and it was about 15 to 20 degrees, so I just really can't imagine what it was like during the winter season. Another thing I saw that really got me were the shoes. There were just so many shoes and I just could not believe it. Just being there was unbelievable. I just still can't comprehend the fact that it was an actual running camp that so many people were tortured and killed in.
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| millions and millions of shoes...all different styles, sizes, and colors |
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| the barbed wire fences |
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| one of the many crematoriums |
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| The gas chamber room...the blue was from the gas |
It’s also just so hard to grasp the fact that there were so many scary , frightening, and sad stories that happened in that exact place. Majdanek was actually exactly how I pictured a concentration camp to be. It was just crazy being there and seeing it in person rather than just seeing it from a book or movie.
After Majdaneck, we went to our hotel in Lublin and checked in. We had about two hours of free time, so of course I slept. I was just so exhausted. After dinner, we walked to a Yeshiva that was about a 10 minute walk. We sat in a group and talked about how we felt going to Majdanek. I thought it really helped talking about it. It was like a group therapy session haha. After this, we ate some snacks then started dancing and singing. Coming from a place that is one of the worst places on earth and wanted to destroy all the Jews to going a Yeshiva dancing and singing…just celebrating that we are all Jewish and we are still here was simply amazing. We also talked and discussed the Torah for about 30 minutes or so. While in the Yeshiva I noticed some pictures that looked exactly like Rabbi Lau, which is the rabbi who married my parents and used to be the chief rabbi of Israel. Thats a pretty big job! But I'm positive it was him, and he is also from Poland who survived the Holocaust. I just thought that was pretty cool.
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