Auschwitz

Today, like many Jews before me, I walked into the Aushwitz concentration camp and Birkenau death camp. However, unlike the massive amount of victims that suffered through the Holocaust, I walked out. It's difficult to imagine that such a short time ago the world was a very different place. Like me, many have struggled with the idea that such a place could exist, such a mass extermination could occur, and such forced power over others could strip one's dignity away from them and destroy one's sense of humanity.

I walked through the concentration camp with one goal: to recite the Mourner's Kaddish at the right time and the right moment. As I walked into one of the barracks, I saw about 50 or so prayer shawls hanging in a glass case. I continued walking and saw thousands upon thousands of shoes piled on top of one another. And then, as I turned to my left, I saw a case filled with the hair of nearly four thousand victims whose hair was cut off them when they arrived. As I looked at the closest thing that I saw to the remains of these individuals, I recited "Yitgadal V'Yitkidash Shemay Rabbah..." I began to think about if these victims realized as they entered the camps what they were going to experience. Did they know that they were going to be forced to work all day, perhaps starve to death, and no longer have a name as identification but a number? Did they believe that they one day would be free or did they personally accept that all faith was lost?

We walked into Block 11, the death block of Aushwitz and saw the only remains of the gas chambers. As empty as it was, you could easily imagine the screams of those who once were in these chambers.

A short drive away we went to Birkenau, and the first thing we saw was the entrance to the death camp that trains once drove through to drop off the victims. The death camp itself was so big, and the thought of the many people that were exterminated kept me in shock. As I walked closer and closer to the remains of the crematoriums, I slowly became speechless. I saw a marsh with left over ashes of victims and the basement of the crematorium where individuals undressed and prepared themselves for death.

I continue to have respect for all the survivors of the Holocaust - those who struggled to survive in so many different ways. It's ironic, you know - that the main goal of this tragedy was to eliminate a group of people thought to be the same. Yet, no one account can truly encompass the events of the Holocaust. No one account can serve justice to the pain and suffering of the many victims. No one can truly understand it or even grasp it. I just stand in silence, realizing that my own challenges in life no longer seem to be a challenge once I compare them to this.

Zichronam l'Vracha,

May their memories be a blessing.

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