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!
