After a 9 hour flight we arrived in Bangkok airport. We were all very excited as it meant one flight down. We were all starting to get tired, which was a good thing as we had a 12 hour flight ahead of us.
We arrived in Frankfurt exhausted, but excited as we were almost in Poland. After a 7 hour lay over we finally got on our last flight for the week and one and a half hours later we arrived in Poland.
It was very exciting, as we had now officially begun our IST journey. We started off by going to the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery where we saw graves of Jews from the 1800’s to present day. It was amazing to see, and listen to the stories that we learnt about back in school, come to life. We saw the grave of Chzernikov who was the head of the Judenrat. We also walked to an area that had tape around it, which we later found out was because it was a mass murder grave. We listened as our tour guide, Yonatan, recited Kaddish and we all answered. It was a meaningful way to start off our journey.
Once we got back on the bus. We were all very tired but extremely eager to see what would happen next. We arrived at the Ghetto Wall. Yonatan showed us pictures of what happened at this spot. We saw adults helping the children over and through the wall, and learnt that once they got through they were shot. It was a surreal experience, as we were standing within the same Ghetto walls that many Jews had been in years before.
We then went to Mila 18, which was where the Resistance started. We learnt that not only those who rebelled and resisted were heroes, but so too were the many others civilians who risked their lives in small ways.
We can’t wait for the emotional, educational and the exciting week ahead!