For the first time in five years, 150 Israeli high school students were able to experience a life-changing week in Poland this November on a Hadassah-sponsored trip to learn about Jewish life in the country and the Holocaust that snuffed out 1,000 years of Jewish history.
The 11th and 12th graders came from Hadassah’s two Youth Aliyah villages, Meir Shfeyah and Hadassah Neurim, along with three other youth villages and a Jerusalem high school.
It's a sign of the times that this year's mission began in the Warsaw commuter town of Otwock. The Middle East security situation means wandering the streets of downtown Warsaw is forbidden for Israelis on official trips. But the students soon learned that the horrors of the Holocaust can be found in almost every corner of the country. Otwock's pre-war population was some 25,000. By 1942, its 60 percent Jewish majority was gone.
The normally boisterous youngsters stood in contemplative silence as guide Natan Peri told them they were standing above a mass grave containing the remains of 2,400 Otwock Jews.
"It was moving to stand at the site," said Avigail Alperin, a 12th grader at Hadassah Neurim. "It's something I've heard about and studied for years. I even opted to take a high school graduation course in Holocaust studies at Hadassah Neurim.”
Despite the driving rain and near-freezing temperature, the students were visibly moved when they visited the mass grave in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. It contains the remains of upwards of 100,000.
"The emotions have started welling up in my gut," one of the students said. "By the end of the week, I don't know where my emotions will be."
With icy winds sweeping in from the Baltic, it was bitterly cold when the students visited Treblinka on the second day of their trip. No amount of clothing could keep the students warm, and the stories told by the guides and teachers further chilled all to the bone.
As the shofar blast echoed across Treblinka’s killing fields, they stood, heads bowed, contemplating all that befell the Jews of Warsaw, Tykocin and elsewhere in this terrible place.
But this Poland trip is also about life. In the city of Tykocin, they visited the only surviving synagogue building. While there are no regular religious services there, Jews from around the world flock to the magnificent early Baroque synagogue, completed in 1643. The students sang inspirational songs, arms locked, looking to the heavens. A group assembled to say a prayer for the full healing of a soldier wounded since October 7, 2023, and closely connected with the Kiryat Yearim Youth Village.
On a visit to the Majdanek concentration camp, the tears poured. Youth Aliyah youngsters come from such a variety of backgrounds, and those born in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and South Africa offered comfort to their classmates whose parents came to Israel from Morocco, Iraq and Yemen. They cried together. They sang together.
“The reason I’m taking photos is that none of my family was directly affected by the Holocaust,” said Hadassah Neurim 12th grader Ruth Gaash. “So, I’m taking the photos for myself, but also to pass on whenever the opportunity arises.”
Later in the day, the students were joined by three Hadassah VIPs –– outgoing Youth Aliyah Chair Marcie Natan, incoming Chair Michele Rubin and Ambassador Barbara “BG” Goldstein.
Visits to the Plaszow concentration camp on the edge of Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau brought home the true horrors of the Holocaust for these young people.
At Auschwitz, students scoured through huge volumes looking for family names. The guides told stories of just a handful of those brought to the camp and of the survivors.
“Auschwitz-Birkenau is why we Israelis and Jews must be strong,” said one of the participants at the conclusion of the trip.
Each student reacts differently — coming to terms with the enormity of the Holocaust and the turmoil back home. But as they headed to the airport, all of them shared one thing — a much greater appreciation for and understanding of the Holocaust –– all thanks to Hadassah.
Read More
Hadassah's Youth Aliyah Teens Maintain Bond with Holocaust Survivors
Hadassah Hosts Senate Briefing for Never Again Education Act
How Hadassah is Standing Up to Antisemitism
Nikole: Finding a New, Safe Home at Meir Shfeyah
Finally Being Seen: Profile of Two Hadassah Neurim Youth
