Diary of a living march

Participant looks back at trip to Jewish sites of tragedy and triumph

RACHEL BLOCK
Special to Jewish News

Students participating in the March of the Living in Poland to the Birkenau camp.

• Sunday, April 19 - The four Phoenix participants, Andy Lebovitz, Helene Diamond, Sarah Palestrant and myself, met at Sky Harbor airport at 4 a.m. We were all on our way without quite realizing what was ahead.
  
  
• Monday, April 20 - We remained at the JFK Hilton in New York all day, meeting the rest of our Western Region and getting to know our bus groups. The Western Region was split into three bus groups. Our region included kids from Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, Little Rock, Las Vegas, La Jolla, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Berkeley, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Phoenix. That day we played the Jewish geography game.
  
  
• Tuesday, April 21 - We left at 1:30 a.m. on El Al for Warsaw, Poland. I remember how foggy and cold and dreary it was on that day as we all got off the plane. It is such a sad and solemn place. Nobody's friendly and, surely, nobody smiles. The very first sight we saw was an old cemetery that was not kept in good condition. As we walked by all the graves, I stopped randomly to read a stone. Coincidentally, the person buried there had the exact same name (translated to Hebrew) as me, Rochel Leah.
  
  Then we davened in the only shul left in Warsaw. It is a beautiful Orthodox synagogue that was kept during the war as horse stables. One of the 200 Polish Jews left in Warsaw opened the ark for us and sang a Jewish song that we sing every Shabbat, "Yismechu Vemalechus Lecha." It was quite a moving moment.
  
  
• Wednesday, April 22 - This was one of the heart-wrenching days. We visited the Warsaw Ghetto, pits from the war, and Treblinka. We saw many memorials in the Warsaw Ghetto, like the Rappaport Memorial. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the pits that people were thrown into in a forest near Treblinka. The tears just kept coming and my heart just kept aching. I said some Psalms for the lost souls and went back on the bus feeling empty as ever.
  
  At Treblinka, my bus had a memorial service, where we sang, read poems, and remembered those who had died there. Treblinka was a death camp, not a work camp, and was for Jews only. Indeed, that made it much more personal and much more hurtful.
  
  
• Thursday, April 23 - What a day! I have never been more physically and emotionally drained in my life. We woke up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a train ride to Auschwitz. Today was the day we would actually march. Marchers came from all over the world - from Israel, the United States, Mexico, Canada, India, Brazil and other countries. All 7,000 kids, 1,000 adults, and all the staff would march together in memory of the 6 million who died in the Holocaust.
  
  We marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau. We marched on the exact same path that a little more than 50 years ago would lead one to death. Therefore, now we were on the March of the Living. The march took two hours. Afterward, at Birkenau, we had many speakers, including Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu and Rav Lau, the chief rabbi of Israel. In Birkenau, there was one blown-up crematorium left that was preserved because it marked one of the biggest revolts by the Jewish people of that time. As we all sang the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah," at the end of the ceremony, one boy jumped on top of the blown-up crematorium and waved an Israeli flag.
  
  I have never been more touched, angry and proud all at the same time. This was one day that will remain with me for the rest of my life.
  
  
• Friday, April 24 - This day would be a much easier day. We went to the old city in Krakow. There we saw the gravesites of many great commentators, such as Tosfos and the Ramah. We visited the oldest shul in Poland and then went into the secular city. The city was actually a thriving place. Yet, one could still smell ashes blowing in the wind.
  
  
• Saturday, April 25 - Shabbat in Poland is very strange. It is hard to celebrate a holy day in what for Jews is an extremely unholy place. The dancing and singing in the streets of Krakow did make me feel a little better though. We heard "righteous gentiles" speak to us, and the Havdalah (service ending the Sabbath) was absolutely incredible. Everyone sang, and we overpowered the Polish wedding next door. Indeed, Shabbat in Poland is an experience I would recommend for only one time.
  
  
• Sunday, April 26 - We visited Majdanek, the most disgusting, revolting place I have ever been to. There they have preserved crematoriums, gas chambers, and even dissecting tables. To see these awful sights is unbelievable. This place was beyond my comprehension. I cannot describe in words the awful feelings one feels when they are in a gas chamber, or staring into a crematorium filled with ashes, or lighting a memorial candle on a dissecting table. The only comfort I received was knowing that that night I was on my way to the Holy Land, Israel.
  
  
• Monday, April 27 to Monday, May 4 - Israel is not an experience one can just describe. It is something one must personally learn and personally experience. Yom Hazikaron (Veterans Remembrance Day), Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), and Shabbat in Israel are all experiences every Jew should have. Seeing the Kotel (Western Wall) gives one an incredible feeling that could never be replaced.
  
  Furthermore, from this trip I learned a deeper meaning. I learned Am Yisrael Chai, the nation of Israel lives!