Pilgrimage to Poland - Part 6

If weather can ever be a metaphor for emotion and feelings it certainly was so on the two days we visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps.

On the first day, the weather was cold, damp, rainy and overall bleak. It mirrored perfectly the despondent, depressed and mournful emotions of remembering the Jewish victims of the most horrific attempt, and successful genocide of more than one third of the global and ninety percent of the European Jewish population.

Our second day visit started out with a tour of the Krakow ghetto, established by the Nazis in 1941, where approximately 20,000 Jewish residents were herded into living in a small area surrounded by a combination of concrete walls and barbed-wire fences. In the middle of the ghetto was a village square close to the railway station which before ghettoization served as an open market.

A resistance was formed in the ghetto and intelligence was gathered by a pharmacist who had his shop on the edge of the square. Nazi movements in the nearby train station were observed and transmitted to the allies. Unfortunately, the resistance and the intelligence operation were short-lived.

After the war a monument was erected in the square comprised of 33 chairs which represented the abandonment of furniture from Jewish homes piled up in the square, and the 33,000 Jews (1 chair for each 1,000 Jews) who passed through the Krakow ghetto on their way to being murdered.

Our short walking tour of the Krakow ghetto led us to the Oscar Schindler Factory which we observed from the outside. From there we once again made our way via bus to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On this second day of our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the weather was warm, sunny and clear … a glorious Spring day. As we exited the bus we observed the convergence of more than 13,000 people and hundreds of flags from nations around the world carried by delegations of Jews and non-Jews from the six inhabited continents of the world.

Our hearts were filled with joy as a sea of Israeli flags fluttered from the arms of thousands of Jews as others, including me, wrapped themselves in the blue and white of the Jewish state.

Today we had come to Auschwitz-Birkenau, not as mourners, but as triumphant conquerers. As we gathered in the museum area of the camp, the many delegations took their place in the staging area as the March of the Living from the “Arbeit Macht Free” entrance gate of Auschwitz I to Berkinau was being organized.

The hundreds of delegations ranged from numerous Jewish organizations and synagogues from America to every country where Jews now reside. Many Christian organizations from around the world were present as well to march in unison with their Jewish brethren. I also observed several Muslim delegations from Indonesia and Morocco as well as a Palestinian Arab delegation organized and led by a young and very beautiful Syrian Lebanese woman, a Muslim by birth who converted to Judaism and now lives in Israel.

Hearing the chatter and conversations among the participants one could feel the optimism and hope for better days to come in contrast to the heartbreak and sadness of yesterday’s witnessing of what took place on these grounds during the Holocaust.

As each delegation was called and exited through the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, the shofar sounded, calling us to remember those who died here and to celebrate the eternal survival of the Jewish people.

Just outside the gates of Auschwitz I and all along the 3.5 km (2.2 miles) MOTL route to the entrance to Birkenau, well-secured by uniformed police positioned every 100 or so yards, were local Poles holding up signs in Hebrew, Polish and English supporting the March, Israel and the Jewish people.

As we entered the grounds of Birkenau, many March participants planted along the tracks leading to the gas chambers, small wooden plaques upon which they had written the names of relatives who had perished here.

The ceremony, situated at the end of the tracks in Birkenau, was attended by a number of survivors, U.S. and Israeli government officials and other dignitaries. The speeches were optimistic and up-lifting.

For me, the words were hard to hear, but not nearly as important as being there, sitting among thousands of my co-religionists and people of all religious backgrounds, nationalities and ethnicities, who had come together as representatives of humanity to state unequivocally that never again would we permit what happened here to be repeated; and to constantly remind the world that there is much work to do to quash the irrational Jewish hatred that still afflicts our world.

To be continued …

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.