VOICES OF CONGREGANTS

Joan Berger

Joan traveled to Poland and Israel October 24-November 3, 2008 with the Anti Defamation League (ADL) and shared these reflections with her family and friends.

I was privileged to be among the ADL leaders who accompanied IDF officers on a trip to Poland and Israel, a trip that can be summarized but not truly described. The importance of this mission is emphasized by 3 facts: 1) the mission was initiated by the IDF, which had never invited any organization to accompany their officers on such a mission. 2) National Director Abe Foxman had been chosen by the State of Israel to represent Holocaust victims on this special mission. 3) This mission involved IDF ceremonies at cemeteries and concentration camps. The importance of the mission is. 4) The mission was organized as a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. The personal importance of this mission to me can also only be summarized but hardly described. I am the daughter of a father who was forced to emigrate from Germany with his family in the early 1930's; I am the daughter of a mother who is a war orphan and refugee who escaped with her 2 sisters on one of the last Kindertransports in1939; I am the granddaughter and niece of a grandfather and uncle who were murdered in Auschwitz; I am the cousin of one of Mengele's guinea pigs; and I am the relative of countless others who perished or were displaced in the Holocaust. I have wanted to take this trip for a very long time. Unable to convince any of my family to take this trip with me, I felt honored and emotionally safe to take this trip with Abe Foxman, other members of my ADL family, and the Israeli Defense Force. It is difficult to convey the fears and ghosts from my childhood that accompanied me on this trip.

The trip was planned to give its participants--approximately 25 ADL leaders and 150 IDF officers--a chronological experience beginning in the 1930's, when Poland had a vibrant Jewish community. We were fortunate to be accompanied by Ephraim Kay, a Yad Vashem educator who’s encyclopedic knowledge of history and languages made the trip an incredible learning experience. First we visited Warsaw, where we had an extensive tour of sites, including that of the Warsaw ghetto--always accompanied by Ephraim and is running history lesson, met with the developers of the Warsaw Jewish Museum, a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Ambassador Victor Ashe, and a member of the Never Again Association, and visited mass graves at the Jewish cemetery of Okopouva and the only remaining synagogue after WWII in Nozyk, where renovations have been made and services are held. We visited Zlota and the Route of Heroism before having a ceremony at a memorial. That evening we had a moving program to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the IDF with photos and candle-lighting by relatives of the fallen. We visited the town of Lodz and the Lodz Cemetery, leaning more about the ghetto and the fate of its inhabitants, and performing a ceremony with the IDF in their memory. We drove to Radgast, where we saw a railroad station where so many martyrs were transported to their sad fates.

Our visit to the killing fields in Chelmno was painfully powerful. There was no evidence remaining of the Jews who had been put in ambulance-like vans and gassed with diesel fumes on their way to being dumped in those fields. For many of us, the reality of the Holocaust murders began to feel more present, more real. That night I heard Abe Foxman tell his story to the IDF officers, and this telling was even more moving and powerful than the many I have heard in prior ADL conferences. The Israeli Surgeon General spoke movingly that night as well. The next day we drove to Kimierz-Dolny, a former and now budding-again artist community, where we could appreciate what life on a shtetl had been like as we strolled the market place and had coffee on the square of this town. We learned that all 3000 of the Jews of this town had been transported to Majdanek's crematory. Imagine our dismay to find anti-Semitic statues of Jews holding money or money bags in their tourist shops! We were later told that Poles view these statues as good-luck charms and give them to new homeowners to wish them the "prosperity of Jews!" By the way, we found these statues where ever we toured in Poland.

Our next stop was in Majdanek, where we first appreciated the meaning of Concentration camps and where all of us were struck with incredible emotional pain . We saw the dorms, went inside the "baths", where victims were gassed, and visited the crematory. There were masses of hair and barracks full of the shoes of those who perished there. Imagine a monument consisting of a large flying saucer-like dome over a pit of ashes estimated to contain the remains of 50,000 human beings! We ADL participants were so honored to take place in the beautiful ceremony conducted that included--as in all the ceremonies--the laying of wreaths, the singing of songs, the recitation of poems, the playing of music, and--with enormous feeling--the singing of Hatikvah.

From Majdanek we all took our cauldrons of emotions to the next stop in Krasnik. In the dark we filed through tunnels from what had been a Beit Midrash into the underground remains of a synagogue with frescoes of the 10 Commandments and of Jerusalem (we envisaged how those Polish Jews longed for Jerusalem!) Suddenly the IDF was playing and singing and dancing and we all joined in to experience an incredible feeling of warmth and renewal after the horrors of Majdanek. We arrived in Krakow late that same night.

The next day we had a visit to Rakovitzki, a cemetery including graves of Jews who fought with the British. Again with the IDF we had a ceremony that included Dan Harel, the IDP Deputy Chief of Staff. When we returned to our hotel we listened spellbound to the testimony of the 83-year-old survivor who accompanied us on our mournful tour. At that point he told us more about his good life before the Holocaust. We then visited a synagogue in Kazimierz and the Old City of Podgorze. That evening we had a break from IDF food (I didn't mention that we had been "dining" on whatever they ate, which often mean sandwiches, bananas and cokes), and were treated to a meal in a restaurant we were told that foreign heads of state dine. It was enlivening to enjoy gourmet Polish food (for me that meant roast goose with apple/cranberry dumplings, red cabbage, and borscht. I picked up some souvenirs--carved sad-looking Hasidic musician, thinking I had bought something local, only to discover they were made in China! Oh, well!

The final day in Poland was the most difficult in many ways. It was a whole day in Auschwitz, where we saw more than the heart can bear and yet were told we only saw a fraction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex! The enormity of the Holocaust really hit home to all of us. Our survivor participant told us more of his amazing dramatic escapes during those last years that included time in Auschwitz. Yad Vashem had provided us with information about Auschwitz victims who had the same names as ours, and I was given the name of my maternal uncle. Imagine the emotion for me as I lit a candle an recited his name in the crematoria of Auschwitz! The ceremony with the IDF was incredibly powerful, and we all marched out of the hellhole together. After that we went to a Dialogue Center for group discussions and departed for the airport, where we accompanied the IDF on a charter flight to Tel Aviv.

Was it ever wonderful to land in Israel!! The next few days were so essential to this mission, impressing upon all of us the importance of the State of Israel and the miracle of the last 60 years.

Our visit included a chance to bring in Shabbat at the Wall, opportunities for touring excavations around the City of David, briefings, wonderful food, and a visit to the new Yad Vashem, where our Poland guide Ephraim Kay connected what we had seen with our own eyes with the exhibit materials and helped us all process our experiences. In our briefings, there was much talk about the significance of the impending US elections as well as talk about the significance of the upcoming elections in Israel, not only for Prime Minister but also for the head of the Palestinian authority and mayor or Jerusalem.

It was an experience I will never forget! I know that sounds trite, but it is true. I was fortunate to travel with some ADL leaders I have known for 20 years and some who are relatively new to leadership. All of us returned with renewed commitments to ADL and fresh realizations of the important role this organization plays in the ongoing struggle against the scourge of anti-Semitism and bigotry. In addition, the IDF officers expressed their appreciation of our participation and our work. There will be discussions of future combined missions. For those of you who have not made this journey of memory, history, and commemoration, I urge you to consider going and taking your children with you! There was one father/son pair on the trip, and the shared experience was so meaningful to them. I know that, despite years of reading about the Holocaust, talking with people, seeing movies, and visiting museums, I didn't really, really "get" it until now.

I would be glad to discuss the trip further with anyone who is interested.

On Jewish Life
Dr. Joan Berger