Day 1 - Poland - Aaliyah & Noa
After what felt like endless days of ‘counting down’, the departure date had finally arrived. Arriving in the airport, everyone was buzzing. The nerves and excitement plastered across each person’s face, child and parent alike. Saying goodbye to our families was hard and many tears were shed. Whilst we know we will miss our parents, we know that what we are about to experience is the dream of so many of our ancestors. Adolf Hitler’s only hopes and dreams were to make Judaism a dead race; a religion you could only learn about through visiting a museum. We were destined to be only an exhibition of a religion that once existed. Yet, despite all odds, we are here and we have the incredible opportunity to go to Poland and then Israel.
Landing in Warsaw, Poland - no loud applause, no singing - just looks of sheer nervousness and uncertainty upon each and every student’s face.
Despite being on separate flights, upon our descent into Poland, we were all consumed with mixed feelings; how could we come to Poland and walk through death camps as students of a Jewish school, when our families stood on the very same ground as us...only, their circumstances so very different? We drove through the streets of Poland with Israeli music blasting on the bus, yet, the journeys of our ancestors through these very same streets completely juxtaposes that of ours. They lived the last few years of their lives on the run, with death perched at every corner, behind every tree.
The streets are eerie, echoing the 1940’s atmosphere. We felt a cold that we’ve never experienced before. A cold that has made itself at home within us, and is the focal point of so many of our family’s histories, of our people’s history.
The atmosphere at the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery illustrated the vibrant Jewish life that once existed in the very same place where the angel of death waited on each corner, waiting to take any Jew he could as one of his own. The same place where life was celebrated, Jews hid underground, under graves, merely, to live, to exist.
The Heroism Trail leading to Mila 18 painted a picture of the past and the righteousness that existed within the communities here in Warsaw. There were so many brave individuals, like Januz Korchak, who put their lives on the line, despite having a path to slight freedom. At Mila 18, we stood upon Mordechai Anilewicz’s bunker, the hero of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the person who was at the forefront of change in Jewish resistance throughout Europe, motivating others to take a stand.
When we hear about inspiring individuals who risked their lives to save many, the thought that lingers within us is, “would we do the same?”
The last remains of the Warsaw Ghetto wall; words cannot describe the feelings that hung over each person’s head when staring at the confines of our people’s history. In that moment nothing else mattered, we were staring at the wall that caged our people in, that segregated them off from the rest of humanity, causing disease and death to spread.
As we drive through the streets of Poland, every tree, every house, every stone we see, we can’t help but think, what have they seen?
Mixed feelings of nervousness, sadness, excitement and exhaustion filled every one of us, as IST 2019 has officially begun.
