I Heart NY

This group is amazing! Our evening flight home to Cincy was cancelled and you should have seen each and every marcher jump for joy when they learned we'd be spending another night together in New York. Even us chaperones have grown accustomed to getting between three and five hours of sleep a night. And it gives me an opportunity to catch up on this blog a little bit.

Yesterday we toured Tel Aviv and did quite a bit of shopping -- first in the flea market of old Jaffa/Yaffo where we honed our bartering skills and then in the high end shops of Tel Aviv. Afterwards, we had a great dinner and then finished the day with a bonfire. After everyone spoke of what moved them the most about their experience in Poland and Israel, we danced and sang with a trio of musicians who mysteriously showed up at our campfire. I knew we had a smart group of kids in this group, but was impressed at what a talented group it turned out to be. Carly Cantor immediately took the microphone and led us in a great rendition of some good campfire oldies. Then Harrison Steinbuch played the drum, Robbie Levy played guitar and sang for us and Daniel played the guitar too. It was great!

This entire experience was amazing. I'm not sure if I have any new pictures to post, but I'll find some oldies for your enjoyment. See you tomorrow morning at 8:15.

Natalie

Yom Ha'atzmaot

What's unique about the March of the Living is the opportunity to be in Israel on Yom Ha'atzmaot. After being in Poland and seeing first hand the lowest point in Jewish history then marching with thousands of fellow Jews from all over the world, we come to be uplifted in Israel on the most solemn of holidays, Yom Ha'zikaron, and the most special of holidays -- Yom Ha'atzmaot. On Yom Ha'atzmaot, we march as a group once again from Safra Square in Jerusalem to the Kotel. Unlike the march the previous week in Poland, which is a solemn, silent, march this march is one filled with pride and enthusiasm for the State of Israel. Groups were singing and waving Israeli flags with gusto. To experience this event in Israel is a once in a lifetime event and our group relished every moment.

After the march, we got to shop in the Cardo before heading back to our hotel and quickly changing for the evening March of the Living Mega Event. The Mega Event is a concluding dinner and concert for all of the March contingents who continued on to Israel. Our group sang, danced and enjoyed the multimedia show which included a performance by Israel's "singer of the year" Shai Gebsol. It was a highlight among all of the many highlights of our trip.

Yom HaZikaron

One of the unique things about March of the Living is having the opportunity to spend Yom Ha'zikaron and Yom Ha' atzmaot in Israel with Israelis. We had the privledge of observing Yom Ha'zikaron with our friends in Cincinnati's sister city Netanya the other day and it was great. Our kids first bonded with Netanya teens just like them in the evening. We all met at Ha'atzmaot Square for a community memorial observance. The square and the streets were packed with people. When a moment of silence was called in commemoration of those who died for the State of Israel, not a sound was heard -- not even a single cell phone! The entire ceremony was in Hebrew and included poems and songs, but even not knowing the language, I felt like I understood it all. When wreaths were laid to honor the fallen, two of our participants, Daniel Allen and Abby Kreines, walked with other Netanyans to lay the wreath from Cincinnati.

Finally, everyone rose to sing Hatikva and as we were singing I realized that the last time we had sang The Hope, the national anthem for the State of Israel, we were standing in Block 11 in Auschwitz. It's amazing how far we've come since then.

Shalom! I'm off to climb Masada. Shabbat Shalom if I don't get another opportunity to post.

Natalie

Sophie Goes Home

Sophie Steinbuck, the survivor who is accompanying us everywhere on our journey was born in the town of Lodz (pronounced "ludge") in Poland. We decided to take a detour from our itinerary -- what a surprise -- and take a little visit. Although Sophie was only eight when her family left Lodz in 1939 she thought she could remember what her house looked like. After all these years, she even remembered the address!

After the requisite three hours of sleep following a night out on the town in Crakow, which we absolutely needed, we got up at the crack of 4 AM to hit the highway on our way back to the airport in Warsaw. In Lodz, we first went to a memorial to the Jews who were deported from Lodz from 1939-1945. Poland is becoming crowded with Holocaust memorials and each and every one is crafted with care. This particular one looks from the outside to be a concrete wall about the length of a football field. Jordan said she thought it reminded her of a wall that prevented the Jews from escaping the Germans. It is engraved at regular intervals with the dates of the Lodz deportations. At the end of the wall sit three empty cattle cars. They are original cattle cars that were once packed with hundreds of Jews destined for extermination. Also, at the end of the wall, we see that it is not merely a wall, but it is really the exterior wall of a long tunnel. We entered the tunnel. On eace side of the interior walls, spaced at regular intervals corresponding to the dates 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945, are framed lists. They are the original lists of Lodz Jews and we could see where their names were crossed off the list as they were transported. 250,000 were deported out of Lodz by cattle car to the death camps during the Holocaust. The tunnel ends in a circular enclosure where the only source of light comes from the top of a tall chimney. It is one of the most stark testiments to the atrocity committed by the Germans upon the Jews that we have seen.

We left the tunnel and went into the cattle car. Orly and Jeremy refused to enter the car. Sophie came inside, but after a short while, she too left saying she remembered only too well being in such a railcar with her mother and sister. The rest of us sat in the car and listened to our educator and guide, Sheryl, read from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. We talked about how the book related to our experiences in Poland and what message we took from the book. Afterwards, we lit a memorial candle and as we passed it to each other we each reflected aloud on how our experience in Poland effected us. When we were finished, there were few dry eyes and we all felt that we had been changed by the experience. One thing we knew is that we were ready to get out of Poland and go to Israel.

Before we go though, there is one more thing to do. Our mission to find Sophie's house! During the time that Poland was under Communist rule, many of the street names were changed. Because this posed a potential problem for our Polish pilot, Eva, and our bus driver, somehow Eva managed to get us a police escort all the way from the Lodz memorial to Sophie's street. Go figure! Apparantly the Lodz police must have nothing better to do. ;) Through the streets of Lodz we went, a tour bus following a police cruiser. We marveled that it was such a big city because many of us were expecting a small village. We turned onto Sophie's street and found the address. Sophie, Michael, Harrison, Eva, and Marish - our security person - got out to see. The verdict? Well, alot has changed over the years but Sophie is pretty certain it was her house. Because she lived on the second floor she was afraid to go up and knock on the door, but let's just say we've never seen more spring in the legs of a 75 year old woman! What a smile! Sophie is a hero to all of us and she has enriched our journey more than any of us can say.

We're in Israel now and every minute is filled. I'll try to persuade one of our marchers to post tomorrow if there is time, but there is rarely time and they are always exhausted. So, until we have another spare minute I'm yours truly,

Natalie Wolf

Majdanek

Majdanek -- May 1, 2008

We drove three hours from Warsaw to the death camp Majdanek. With us we had Sophie Steinbuch who was taken, along with her mother and sister to Majdanek as a ten year old girl. Walking into the camp, we were dumbstruck by the proximity of the camp to the town where it was located. The camp was literally built adjacent to and a stone’s throw away from the places where Poles lived and worked. The crematorium was no more than a football field’s distance away from the town! Unlike Treblinka, which was hidden deep in the forest, Majdanek was built to be seen.

You walk into the camp by passing beneath an enormous stone sculpture. The experience is one of being sucked into the camp. We walked down a sloped concrete path where once at the bottom we felt like we were trapped in the bottom of a pit. From the bottom of the trench, the steep stone steps leading out looked like an impassable stone wall. The sides are comprised of enormous stone slabs, through which we could see one sliver of the adjacent town. Only a sliver of sky was visible from the bottom of the pit looking up at the sculpture we would pass under before entering the camp. It was in this setting that Sophie told us her own story of being a prisoner at the camp.

When she arrived with her mother and sister, her mother was immediately separated from her mother and sister. She told us about entering the showers and how hot and crowded and horrible it was. She recalled having her hair shorn off and how she cried and fought in protest. She also described how she felt lucky that on more than one occasion, being a young girl of ten or eleven, there were people who felt sorry for her and took care of her. She couldn’t adequately find the words to describe her experience and resulted to such things as “horrible” and “hell” but what she didn’t say became evident to us as we toured the camp itself.a

Words cannot adequately describe the chills I got when I walked into the shower barrack. We entered another barrack which was used by the Germans as a storage facility. Storage for what? When the Jews left their towns to be transported to the concentration camps, they wore their best traveling clothes and packed their most valuable possessions. These are the items that were “stored” by the Nazis. Gold, silver, and copper coins. Candlesticks, artwork, money, clothing. The room was now used to house 5000 pairs of shoes. The smell of the leather was overwhelming. There were so many shoes that my brain could not initially perceive of them as shoes. They appeared at first as a charcoal drawing on the wall. When I slowly walked closer I could see that they were individual shoes – high heel pumps, spectators, saddle shoes – evidence of the best shoes that belonged to the former owners.

We saw the barracks which were actually prefabricated horse stables designed to house, at most, 50 horses. In each barrack, 800 Jews were housed. The camp is enormous. Larger than you could ever imagine. We entered the crematorium and I was sickened by the first thing I saw which was the dissection table. After the Jews were murdered, their body was placed on a dissection table where it was searched to find any valuables that were hidden within the body. Our guide, Sheryl, told us a story of a woman who possessed a diamond. Her mother told her to swallow the diamond. And that is what she did. Again and again.

Our final stop at Majdanek was the crematorium. How sick were the nazis? Within the crematorium was a bathroom with a large bath. The heat from the ovens burning the bodies of the Jews was so intense that it was capable of heating water for the bath of the SS officer who worked in the crematorium. We said Kaddish for the pour souls who died at the camp and sang Hatikva together before leaving. Before we left the camp, we lit memorial candles at the memorial for those slaughtered at Majdanek. The memorial is the resting place for the seven tons of human ash that belonged to the departed.

Natalie Wolf

Marching

As we entered Auschwitz we were greeted by a sea of blue rain coats and Israeli flags. On Yom HaShoah thousands of Jews gathered to remember the six million that tragically died in the Holocaust. As I looked around I couldn’t help but to feel proud. I felt proud to be Jewish, to be surrounded by my fellow Jews, and that we survived and were able to return to the camp to celebrate life. We watched as Jews from Panama, the United States, Japan, Israel, and the Israeli Defense Force all began to march. Teenagers, adults, and survivors all joined together as we walked from Auschwitz 1 to Birkenau. It felt incredible to walk and schmooze with Jews from around the world as Polish supporters eagerly waved from the sidewalks. When we arrived at Birkenau, the ceremony was just beginning. During the ceremony several people made speeches all agreeing to never again let anything happen, as well as a choir sang several songs. The ceremony ended with several Holocaust survivors leading the Mourner’s Kaddish and then the whole program joined together in the singing of Hatikvah.

In typical Jewish fashion, everyone was talking throughout the whole program, but when Hatikvah began everyone joined together in song. It was so powerful to have 10,000 Jews join together in the national anthem of Israel and to show their pride. We joined together in a place where horrible deaths and torture occurred all those years ago, and were able to stand tall and celebrate.
- Abby Kreines and Daniel Allen

The March!

Together we marched with over 10,000 strong, tellling the world with every step -

"NEVER AGAIN"!

The Summer of '42

In the movie, The Summer of ’42 Richard Dreyfus spent one summer night “dragging the main” in search of the hot blond in the blue T-Bird. Life was fun and easy as it should be for young adults in their early twenty es – or teens --as they may actually have been in the movie. I can’t remember all the details, but I couldn’t help thinking about that movie yesterday as we were touring the walk of heros in Warsaw with Sheryl as our guide. Why? The summer of ’42 is when the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was held. It was initiated and accomplished by young Jewish Poles whose average age was twenty years old. Touring Poland and the nazi concentration camps I can’t help but also compare the life of the Jews who lived here during the Holocaust with the lives of their American counterparts. When the days are sunny and the summer nights are hot and the only worries are whether to order a chocolate or vanilla shake at the diner, how can it be possible that a completely different reality exists for people who look exactly like you and live in a modern world like you do but whose reality is a universe away?
Several of the marchers in our group were angry that the Jews didn’t fight back against the Germans sooner. We talked a lot about the dichotomy of hope and denial We discussed how hope and denial are two of the strongest human motivators and there is a constant struggle between the two. On the one hand, the Jews were possible in denial that the rumors they heard were true. It is understandable, right? Who can imagine that such evil can exist in the minds and deeds of men in the Twentieth Century? Who can imagine a plot to exterminate the entire Jewish people of Europe? Impossible! On the other hand, what kind of life is a life without hope? How do you wake up to face the next day, find food for your starving family, if you have no hope that things will get better and return to normal soon? We talked about fighting back by simply refusing to give up. By continuing practicing Judaism, going to school, and resisting in subtle ways and continuing to do the things that the Germans prohibited the Jews from doing the Jews were fighting back.
Our walking tour ended at the intersection of the Warsaw Ghetto and the office of the Judenrat. There is a subtle sculpture embedded on the plaza of the Hebrew letter bet and an olive branch. One proposed meaning of the sculpture was the letter bet is the first letter of the Torah. It is the first letter of the word Bereshit – “in the beginning” – the first words of the Torah. It possibly symbolizes hope for a new beginning for the Jews. We would start again and rebuild our lives, families and populations. The olive branch, also a symbol from Bereshit, is another symbol of hope. In the story of Noah, Go d destroyed all of humanity with the exception of those who were aboard the ark. When Noah sent the dove out to find dry land, the dove returned with an olive branch in its mouth. This indicated to Noah that it was time to rebuild the earth and start anew.

Auschwitz

Today, not many people have the chance to witness firsthand the horror that is Auschwitz. This was the case in visiting the most famous Nazi concentration camp. Walking through the gates of Burkaneau underneath the guard tower, really made you think about how horrifying this place actually was. The size of this camp is unimaginable, buildings on all sides for as far as the eye can see, it almost reminds you of a little industrialized town. Except, that this place was a factory of death, not for textiles, or other material objects.

After the March of the Living ceremony we toured the camp. Our first stop was at the crematorium, where we ate our lunches. It was the weirdest feeling I have ever had in my life. I was thinking, "Wow, I am really eating a meal in the middle of a concentration camp." Although it was not the best meal in the world, I couldn't help but to finish it all. I just felt like I didn't want to waste anything because the people at the camp would have loved to have anything at all to eat.

Our next stop was at the barracks in the middle of the woman’s camp. It was the spookiest building I have ever encountered. You just felt the spirits in the building the second you stepped in the door. As I progressed through the barracks, the feeling I had overwhelmed my body, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.

At the end of the tour I could not wait to leave this place, and I wondered how it was not rated one of the spookiest places in the world.
Brent Rothchild

Welcome to Poland

What day is this anyway? We’ve been on the move since Monday morning (yesterday?) and haven’t stopped since. Sleep on the plane? Forget it. We flew to Warsaw via Copenhagen (don’t ask), but I will say that Scandanavian Airlines are very nice.

Arriving in Warsaw, tired and smelly, we met our guides, Sheryl and Yael. With no time to rest we started immediately on our day. This would prove to be a very emotional day and I know there will be more such days tomorrow.

The first stop on our journey was to the Ungaplatz – the platform where the Jews of Warsaw were sent to await their fateful journey to the death camps. Like those Jews, our next stop was the death camp Treblinka. Nestled in a beautiful, pastoral setting, far away from prying eyes, the Germans were able to successfully carry out their evil plan of Jew-murder with their customary efficiency. The camp itself was completely razed by the Germans in 1943 once Auschwitz became fully operational, and what remains on the site a memorial to the 850,000 Jews who were murdered there over the mere eleven months of its operation.

Following our memorial at Treblinka, we once again boarded our bus and drove through the pastoral Polish countryside to the old shtetl of Tichochin. Tichochin looks exactly as it did for hundreds of years when it’s primary population was Jewish. We went into the old synagogue, which has been preserved and the Marchers acted out a little skit of two children coming to the chuppa to be engaged. Afterwards, we danced the hora in the old synagogue. Outside on the market square, our guide Sheryl told us the story about the people of Tichochin. In 1941, the town’s Jews were rounded up in the market square. We were instructed to remain silent for the next ten minutes as we walked back to our bus and made our way a short way down the road.
Arriving at our destination, about 2 km down the road, we got out of the bus, still not talking, and made our way down a long path, deep into the Luchowo forest. At the end of the path, were two large and one smaller fenced in area with the remnants of memorial candles and stones. It was here that we learned the fate of the people of Tichochin. The poor souls, once assembled in the Market Square, were loaded onto trucks and carts. Those that didn’t fit on the wagons had to run behind. They were taken to the exact spot where we stood. The three fenced areas were large pits that were designed to serve as their graves. One by one, the citizens of Tichochen were murdered by the Germans. We listened to the testimony of some who survived. It was a haunting and emotional moment for all of us, that ended with all of us throwing a handful of dirt from Israel (courtesy of Yael) and lighting a memorial candle. We then made a circle and concluded with Am Yisrael Chai!

Wheels on the bus....(in NJ)

Group arrived safely at JFK and you can already see how well the group gets along. They have a great spirit about them, and are all very charged about the trip. After a warm and emotional send off with family and friends at the Cincy airport, we have shifted gears and have begun the myriad of planes, trains and automobiles that lead us to Warsaw.

Traveling with our group is holocaust survivor Sophie Steinbuch - instantly everyone's grandma! On the bus between JFK and Newark she pulled out the home baked chocolate chip and butter cookies that she baked for them.

David

The day is almost here! All of the marchers are getting their gear together, and are excited about our departure tomorrow morning. Keep checking back to this blog to stay in touch with the progress of the trip, and all of ther amazing stories and pictures that will have you wishing you were there.