Poland #2

Traveling to Poland last week was a much different experience than I've ever had. I was mostly able to handle what I saw but there were a few things in particular that were especially hard to see.

The first thing that was especially hard were the shoes. I've seen shoes from camps in multiple different places like D.C. and Yad Vashem but going into the shoe room at Majdanek  was such a different experience. There was such a vast quantity it was almost impossible to fathom that each pair of shoes belonged to an individual person from that camp alone. I walked down each row of shoes trying to understand how those all once belonged to someone. The majority of the shoes were the same brownish color but a few pairs had kept their color over the years. This felt like how out of the millions of people captured and put into camps, only a few escaped.

Another thing that was particularly disturbing were the gas chambers. This was a place that had such an emphasis placed on it while studying the Holocaust. While walking inside it was so hard to realize that we were really in the place where so much death occurred. It wasn't the same as the surrounding camp because it was specific spot where so many of our people were killed. 

Another place that was hard to visit were the memorials of ashes. The one in Majdanek came as such a surprise, I really didn't expect that large memorial at the end to be so morbid. I couldn't believe that the huge pile in front of me were the remains of the hundreds of thousands of people killed at the site we had just toured. I also couldn't believe the ponds at Auchwitz 2 were filled with ashes. I found the pond near the back to be peaceful and beautiful, so it was almost impossible to fathom it was filled with remains the Nazis had dumped there. 

Overall the Poland trip was filled with a few particular events that were especially hard to handle. I think all though hard to see, every Jew should make the trip to Poland at some point in their lives. The Holocaust is such an important part of our history, every Jew should experience these sights first hand because it provides a little more insight into the horrors of World War 2 and the awful things so many of our people went through.