Oswiecim, Auschwitz-Birkenau & Tarnow

of Oswiecim. Today it is known as the only surviving synagogue in the town next to Auschwitz. Our tefilot were strong and beautiful and a tribute to the Jews who once davened and studied Mishnah in this small prayer room.

After we finished Shacharit we used our buses for a short ride to the site of the Auschwitz I ‘mother camp.’ This former Polish military barracks was turned into a concentration camp by the Nazis and quickly filled with Polish and Jewish prisoners. When the Nazis decided that they would be bringing many hundreds of thousands more Jews here, to enslave some and murder most, the decision was taken to build the much larger Auschwitz II – Birkenau a few kilometers away. Today, Auschwitz I is a museum to the atrocities that took place in both parts of the camp, and the students took in its emotionally loaded displays of shoes, suitcases, Tallitot, and human hair. I was touched as I watched them hug and support one another as they walked through the barracks that have been turned into museum displays.

After a brief pause for lunch, we drove the three kilometers to Birkenau to continue our visit there. We walked from the front of the camp to the back, stopping into original barracks and other spots throughout the camp to read survivor testimony about ‘living’ conditions in the camp, as well as about the extermination process. We paused on the ramp where trains were unloaded and selections conducted, and we stood overlooking the remains of Gas Chamber-Crematoria Building Number Two, one of four that was dynamited by the Nazis before the camp was liberated, in an effort to hide the evidence of their crimes. We examined it emotionally of course, but also analytically, understand how the building operated when it was in use.

It’s worth noting that for much of the afternoon, we did this in the pouring rain. In the end, we cut our visit slightly short on account of the rain, but not before the students felt they had seen and understood what they came to see and understand. They were an inspiration to guide under such arduous conditions, especially as they sought to push on despite the cold, the rain and the discomfort. We ultimately closed with a student-led tekes under the entryway arch of the Birkenau main gate building.

We left Birkenau and drove to Tarnow for dinner at a pop-up kosher restaurant set up by our caterer in time for our arrival. From there we made a brief stop at ‘The Bima of Tarnow,’ the central four-columned bima that is the only remnant of the Tarnow Great Synagogue still standing, the building having been destroyed by the Nazis in 1939. Today, it is a moving memorial to the Jews of Tarnow and an inspiration to us all as it encapsulates the spirit of Am Yisrael Chai. A day in Auschwitz-Birkenau reminds us that the Nazis sought to wipe out Jews and Judaism. Watching our students walking proudly through Auschwitz and seeing the Bima still standing reminds us that despite it all, we are still here. Am Yisrael Chai.