and finally...march of the living pics...at least the poland half.
Ok..well, technically i took a total of 927 pictures between Poland and Israel. so, it was extremely hard for me to pic out just a few to put on my lj, so that other people's computers wouldn't go insane when they try to open all of them. so, i have here 20 pictures...scaled down and lower quality so that it wont be that huge of a file. however...this is just poland. i'll add an "israel" entry another time. anyways...here it goes.
The El/Al plane to Poland. Who would have ever thought?
This hole is in the Lodz Ghetto Cemetary. On of the survivors from Miami, Leo (he was on Michael's bus), once worked there when the Nazis invaded Poland. They instructed Leo and the rest of the workers in the cemetary to dig holes for themselves, so that the Nazis can throw them in there after they kill them. They then revolted against the Nazis and killed them, and put them in there instead.
These stones were scattered around the death camp called Treblinka. There were 17,400 of them. This was the average number of people that died in one day in Treblinka. Before the camp was liberated, the Nazis destroyed everything. Now it's a barren field...leaving ones imagination to take over.
This was the pit that was always on fire, fueled by human fat. Nazis would shoot somebody...and throw them in there. Close to the end of the war, the Germans were losing money. This was then when they lowered the price of a Jew's life to less than the price of a bullet. They rarely shot them, and resulted in more grotesque means of killing them, such as smashing babies against walls, intead of simply shooting them in the head.
We had been at a Yeshiva in the city studying for a little when my bus captain had told my group that it would take less than an hour and a half to get to Majdanek death camp. 5 minutes later, as we neared the center of the city, we saw Majdanek. You could see the city surrounding the camp. This is how it was when the camp was in operation. The camp, to some, was their back yard.
This is a cleaned up barrack in Majdanek. This is how everyone slept. in each slot, 6 people slept.
Shoes of prisoners who were killed. every 2 once belonged to someone. there were about three rows like this one in this barrack alone. It still smelled like feet.
In Majdanek the showers were in the same building as the gas chambers. Prisoners sent to the showers didnt know if it was to be gassed, or to really be showered. This kept them calmer than if they knew they were definitely going to die. They used the showers to torture the jews by switching the water from scorching hot to ice cold over and over again. if they were to be gassed after the showers, they would give them a warm shower so that their pores would open up, and allow the gas to enter their bodies more efficiently.
In the next few rooms there were gas chambers like this one. Those blue marks are from the Zyklon-B gas thrown in there while the camp was operating. They would pack hundreds of people in here like cattle...as they didnt have any reason for them to die comfortably...and drop gas canisters from the top and wait about 20 minutes until they all suffocate and die. The SS watched from the peephole on the outside.
After the gas chambers, Jewish prisoners would have to wheel their own people to the crematorium at the other end of camp.--- from this chimney...ashes spewed up into the air. It's said that you could never see the sun in the death camps, as there was always a cloud of ash covering it. in auschwitz, my survivor told me, that when he asked to the head officer where his parents were, he told him "you see that chimney and all that ash in the sky? That's where your parents are. Thats where you'll be going shortly. You're not here to work, like they tell you. You're here to die."
Once there, They were each put in individually into the ovens and burned until they are turned to ash. This, to the Germans was a means of saving space, as they didnt have the space to bury millions of jewish bodies.
Outside of the crematorium there was this structure. In here, there are 17 tons of ash from human flesh. This is equal to two superbowl crowds dead. it was incredibly surreal knowing that in this gigantic urn were peoples remains. shortly after we had a ceremony...where we sang the hatikvah, the israeli national anthem...for those who could never see israel in that pile of ash.
The day of the March of the Living. Yom Hashoa--Holocast Rememberance Day, and my first time at Auschwitz. close to 8,000 jewish marchers showed up to support the cause from over 40 countries. We walked 3km from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the Death camp of Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz II. This was the same "Death March" the prisoners of Auschwitz took as they were sent to Birkenau to be put to their death.
This is Howard...a survivor of Birkenau. He is standing on top of destroyed crematoria, where many of his family members were sent, holding the Israeli flag. I think this picture, above all, sums up the March of the Living.
Behind the crematoria there were ponds. The Nazis ran out of places to put the ash from the crematoria, so they dug holes and filled them with water...and threw the ash in there. if you take a stick and mix around the bottom of the pond, you can see ash come up. We brought sand from Israel and put some in there to attempt to bring Israel once again to those who did not get a chance to see it, or even dream about it.
After a little while by the pond, i asked my friends to walk around the camp a little with me. Nobody wanted to come, so i thought i would be fine going alone. i came into a barrack, and there was absolutely nobody there. This was when i wrote the journal entry that starts out "there is no feeling like that of an empty barrack." you feel such an amazing feeling of presence. You see things you shouldnt be seeing...and hear things you shouldnt be hearing. When i stepped out of the barrack, it felt like i could breathe again for the first time...after being held underwater for minutes. I was shaking when i took this picture.
Here im standing where Dr. Mengele stood as the trains would come in. He would either point his white stick to the left for death or the right for work, depending on how healthy you looked. it was as simple as that. one swing of a stick.
The next day we came back to Auschwitz for a proper tour. They had turned it into a museum, except for the gas chamber/crematorium. This was left as it was 60 years ago. It looked similar to the one in Majdanek, except this one had markings on the walls. Fingernail scratches, from people trying to get up high above the crowd for one last breath of air before they died.
The biggest difference between the gas chambers and crematoria in majdanek to those in auschwitz, is that the ones in auschwitz were in the same building. This made killing people more efficient. The room next to the gas chamber was the crematorium. In the corner of the crematorium there was a shower, for people to wash human ash off of them after they're done with work. The shower was here because they felt comfortable in the heat of the ovens.
We always went into abandoned shuls (temples) that havent been used in years. we would always bring them back to life and bring the noises of prayer, song and dance back. In the shul on the right, we were there with about 2 other countries. we sang and danced to the same songs. we knew eachother without talking.
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well...thats a small portion of my trip to poland. i guess it could leave one with a hint of what an experience it all was. people always ask me..."did you have a good time, how was your vacation?" I always tell them..."Poland wasnt fun. it was an experience that will forever be remembered. Israel, however is a different story."
The El/Al plane to Poland. Who would have ever thought?
This hole is in the Lodz Ghetto Cemetary. On of the survivors from Miami, Leo (he was on Michael's bus), once worked there when the Nazis invaded Poland. They instructed Leo and the rest of the workers in the cemetary to dig holes for themselves, so that the Nazis can throw them in there after they kill them. They then revolted against the Nazis and killed them, and put them in there instead.
These stones were scattered around the death camp called Treblinka. There were 17,400 of them. This was the average number of people that died in one day in Treblinka. Before the camp was liberated, the Nazis destroyed everything. Now it's a barren field...leaving ones imagination to take over.
This was the pit that was always on fire, fueled by human fat. Nazis would shoot somebody...and throw them in there. Close to the end of the war, the Germans were losing money. This was then when they lowered the price of a Jew's life to less than the price of a bullet. They rarely shot them, and resulted in more grotesque means of killing them, such as smashing babies against walls, intead of simply shooting them in the head.
We had been at a Yeshiva in the city studying for a little when my bus captain had told my group that it would take less than an hour and a half to get to Majdanek death camp. 5 minutes later, as we neared the center of the city, we saw Majdanek. You could see the city surrounding the camp. This is how it was when the camp was in operation. The camp, to some, was their back yard.
This is a cleaned up barrack in Majdanek. This is how everyone slept. in each slot, 6 people slept.
Shoes of prisoners who were killed. every 2 once belonged to someone. there were about three rows like this one in this barrack alone. It still smelled like feet.
In Majdanek the showers were in the same building as the gas chambers. Prisoners sent to the showers didnt know if it was to be gassed, or to really be showered. This kept them calmer than if they knew they were definitely going to die. They used the showers to torture the jews by switching the water from scorching hot to ice cold over and over again. if they were to be gassed after the showers, they would give them a warm shower so that their pores would open up, and allow the gas to enter their bodies more efficiently.
In the next few rooms there were gas chambers like this one. Those blue marks are from the Zyklon-B gas thrown in there while the camp was operating. They would pack hundreds of people in here like cattle...as they didnt have any reason for them to die comfortably...and drop gas canisters from the top and wait about 20 minutes until they all suffocate and die. The SS watched from the peephole on the outside.
After the gas chambers, Jewish prisoners would have to wheel their own people to the crematorium at the other end of camp.--- from this chimney...ashes spewed up into the air. It's said that you could never see the sun in the death camps, as there was always a cloud of ash covering it. in auschwitz, my survivor told me, that when he asked to the head officer where his parents were, he told him "you see that chimney and all that ash in the sky? That's where your parents are. Thats where you'll be going shortly. You're not here to work, like they tell you. You're here to die."
Once there, They were each put in individually into the ovens and burned until they are turned to ash. This, to the Germans was a means of saving space, as they didnt have the space to bury millions of jewish bodies.
Outside of the crematorium there was this structure. In here, there are 17 tons of ash from human flesh. This is equal to two superbowl crowds dead. it was incredibly surreal knowing that in this gigantic urn were peoples remains. shortly after we had a ceremony...where we sang the hatikvah, the israeli national anthem...for those who could never see israel in that pile of ash.
The day of the March of the Living. Yom Hashoa--Holocast Rememberance Day, and my first time at Auschwitz. close to 8,000 jewish marchers showed up to support the cause from over 40 countries. We walked 3km from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the Death camp of Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz II. This was the same "Death March" the prisoners of Auschwitz took as they were sent to Birkenau to be put to their death.
This is Howard...a survivor of Birkenau. He is standing on top of destroyed crematoria, where many of his family members were sent, holding the Israeli flag. I think this picture, above all, sums up the March of the Living.
Behind the crematoria there were ponds. The Nazis ran out of places to put the ash from the crematoria, so they dug holes and filled them with water...and threw the ash in there. if you take a stick and mix around the bottom of the pond, you can see ash come up. We brought sand from Israel and put some in there to attempt to bring Israel once again to those who did not get a chance to see it, or even dream about it.
After a little while by the pond, i asked my friends to walk around the camp a little with me. Nobody wanted to come, so i thought i would be fine going alone. i came into a barrack, and there was absolutely nobody there. This was when i wrote the journal entry that starts out "there is no feeling like that of an empty barrack." you feel such an amazing feeling of presence. You see things you shouldnt be seeing...and hear things you shouldnt be hearing. When i stepped out of the barrack, it felt like i could breathe again for the first time...after being held underwater for minutes. I was shaking when i took this picture.
Here im standing where Dr. Mengele stood as the trains would come in. He would either point his white stick to the left for death or the right for work, depending on how healthy you looked. it was as simple as that. one swing of a stick.
The next day we came back to Auschwitz for a proper tour. They had turned it into a museum, except for the gas chamber/crematorium. This was left as it was 60 years ago. It looked similar to the one in Majdanek, except this one had markings on the walls. Fingernail scratches, from people trying to get up high above the crowd for one last breath of air before they died.
The biggest difference between the gas chambers and crematoria in majdanek to those in auschwitz, is that the ones in auschwitz were in the same building. This made killing people more efficient. The room next to the gas chamber was the crematorium. In the corner of the crematorium there was a shower, for people to wash human ash off of them after they're done with work. The shower was here because they felt comfortable in the heat of the ovens.
We always went into abandoned shuls (temples) that havent been used in years. we would always bring them back to life and bring the noises of prayer, song and dance back. In the shul on the right, we were there with about 2 other countries. we sang and danced to the same songs. we knew eachother without talking.
-----------------------------------------------
well...thats a small portion of my trip to poland. i guess it could leave one with a hint of what an experience it all was. people always ask me..."did you have a good time, how was your vacation?" I always tell them..."Poland wasnt fun. it was an experience that will forever be remembered. Israel, however is a different story."