Hope is the Last to Die

*FROM 11/10*
We woke up this morning at 7 am in Lublin. We had a decent breakfast and then went to Old Town Lublin. Before we entered the actual town we had quick class meetings on what we should look for while walking around. We came up with 4 things: a castle, a church, a water source, and Jewish symbols. We then had an hour to walk around, take pictures, and get to know the town. Sydney, Larissa, and I walked around and had a mini photo shot. After class wrap-ups we got on the bus for a 3 min drive to Yeshivat Chacemi Lublin (aka the Harvard of Yeshivot). The boys accepted had to memorize 400 pages of Talmud just to be accepted. Before we finished we did a torah study activity. Then we had our box lunches and made our way to the Majdanek death camp (it was originally a Labor camp). When we arrived I was shocked to find that the camp wasn’t in the middle of nowhere but rather next to neighborhoods and office buildings. There is even a path going through the SS part of camp connecting the offices to the homes. It was uncomforting. It was also odd b/c people drive past this place everyday and probably don’t even note its importance. Our tour of the “German Killing Factory” was lead by Halina Birenbaum and her story “Hope is the last to Die”. Ariella read excerpts as took everything in. Below are some of my impressions:
-Gas Chambers: it’s amazing how much thought and deception the Nazis put inot the Final Solution. Giving the people who were about to die soap and towels and the gas chambers saying bathhouse.
-Room of shoes: every shoe is this room stands for a soul. Someone who unconsciously walked in those shoes to their death. I felt some of the shoes, they were dusty and dirty. Part of me wanted to take off my shoes and add them to the pile.
-Barracks: we questioned where it would be better to sleep; the top close to the cold, the middle where the Capo could easily reach you, or the bottom where all the feces and other bodily issues would fall on you. I can’t believe that 1000 people fit in one of these huts.
-Crematory: they had to add another crematory and gas chamber just to fill their killing needs.
- Sitting at the pile of ashes you can see the entire death camp. Back then all the grass I see was barracks or other horrifying German contraptions. The camp is not what I expected; the barracks are bigger, the gas chambers more or less the same, and the sorrow for the Jewish people and hatred towards the Nazis, higher.

Our tour ended at the Memorial of the Pile of Ashes. This location was also where my Tekes (ceremony) was held. Our ceremony went well and I didn’t mess up my song! Then after our sad, depressing, heart wrenching and disturbing tours we got on the bus and headed back to Warsaw. Within a few minutes of being on the bus, Hadas, said she had something for us. It was letters from our families. I got one from Grammy and poppy and one from mommy (along with a copy of my bat-mitzvah speech) [I might have possibly cried after reading the letters]. Then we watched movie number 3, the pianist. Around 8 we finally got to the hotel (the one we stayed at the first night), put our bags down, and went to a buffet dinner. At 9 we had class discussions followed by Larissa, Sydney and I eating my graham crackers with nutella and bananas as a nighttime snack. Then I went back to my room and went to bed.