I shouldn't have gone to Poland, because I shouldn't have had to.
Earlier this summer, I made a decision that would inevitably change my entire life. I decided to apply for a chance to go abroad and travel to Poland. Why Poland, you may ask? This was not just any old class trip to a foreign country to have fun and enjoy warm weather, but this was a Holocaust study seminar. This meant that in just nine short days we would visit three death camps (one of which was the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau), tour the Warsaw ghetto, and meet an incredible Holocaust survivor. From the moment I hit submit on that application, I realized that I was never going to live the same life ever again.
Preparation for this journey was different for different people. Since this article is about my own personal experience, I will tell you about my own preparation. There was none. I didn't prepare myself at all for what I was about to do because quite frankly I didn't know how the hell to prepare for that kind of experience. I am a 17-year-old Jewish girl that has learned about the Holocaust her entire life. I even took a full semester class studying just the Nazis and the Holocaust. I thought that this would be enough to help me out a little bit and put me ahead of the game.That didn't even begin to prepare me for the events that would occur while in Poland. I think most of my travel mates can agree that studying the topic didn't make the experience any easier. The program, Classrooms Without Borders, also provided us with some study sessions to help us, but of course, these didn't even begin to show us what we would see in a few short weeks.
I have never traveled abroad before, so that alone was a brand new experience. My mother helped me pack as we went through endless checklists and thought of every possible thing we could think of. The morning came, and I was incredibly nervous and my stomach could feel those nerves too. I don't really know what it was that made me feel that nervous, but it was a bad mixture of all of it. The flight over was long but uneventful, and we arrived in Poland Monday morning. When we walked a little after we got off the plane, we ran into our guide, Mark, and Tsipy, the director of the trip. Let me just make it clear that I could not have picked two better people to have led and helped us on this trip. Also, my Wheeling director, Barb, made the trip incredible. We hit the ground running that day in Warsaw as we visited the Jewish cemetery that still stands there. It was very odd to start from the end of the story, but truthfully, that was one of the most upbeat parts of the trip.
The next day we continued in Warsaw with a tour of the Jewish Ghetto which was 1.3 miles long. At its maximum capacity, it held 500,000 people. These people were crowded into an enclosed area and treated like they were not even humans. A lot of people don't think about what happened before the camps, but the act of relocating people into somewhere that is basically a cage is very sick. That afternoon we went to the place in which 800,000 people were systematically murdered and thrown into huge mass graves. 3 of these 800,000 people were the mother, brother, and sister of our survivor, Howard. Nothing remains at the Treblinka Death Camp except for 16,000 stones that stand to represent communities of Jewish people. And 800,000 lives thrown into a grave, 800,000 lives never given the chance to live their entire life and 800,000 lives taken because of who they were. At each camp, we had a memorial service to honor the victims, but something about the beauty in Treblinka made me feel so eerie.
The next afternoon was the start of the worst day of my entire life. We visited Majdanek, the almost completely intact death camp. No preparation could prepare anyone for this. We started by seeing the barbed wire. It stood to keep people from leaving, a cage. That is where I saw my first gas chamber. It's an experience that makes an impact on you. I knew that I got to walk out of the gas chamber and crematorium and even the camp, but the people who experienced it first were not as lucky. That night I didn't sleep even a little bit because I couldn't stop thinking about the horrific things I saw that day.
The rest of the trip consisted of hearing Howard's story, from the beginning in his hometown to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he was held. Howard claims it was luck that kept him alive, and while that may have been a factor, it is not all of it. Howard is an amazing man that was chosen to live because of his strength and personality. The world is a better place because Howard is in it.
There are a few things I'm taking away from this incredible trip. Never ever take things for granted. You are way more blessed than you think you are. Thank your caregivers more and tell your friends how much you love them. You never know when all of this may be taken away. I learned acceptance. Hatred because someone isn't like you is absolutely unacceptable. People come in all different shapes, sizes, and skin colors. People also are different on the inside. These differences make us who we are and that's what makes our world so great. Finally, I learned to stand up against injustice and hate. If you think something is wrong, then you go out and fight against it. This world could use a lot more fighters. Recently, we have had so many terrorist attacks, police brutality incidents, and discrimination against homosexuals.
We are living in 2016, people. Love is love. Skin pigmentation doesn't define your worth. Religion shouldn't affect your opinion on someone. Poland taught me so many things that I will never forget, but I shouldn't have gone to Poland because the Holocaust shouldn't have happened. Things like it shouldn't still be happening.
