‘The silence in Auschwitz speaks’
A RECORD 138 students concluded the first leg of their six-week Israel Study Tour (IST) journey with an emotional visit to Auschwitz.
A RECORD 138 students concluded the first leg of their six-week Israel Study Tour (IST) journey with an emotional visit to Auschwitz.
The year 10 students from Moriah College and Masada College spent one week in Poland and will travel around Israel for the remainder of the trip.
Stating that the name Auschwitz “sends shivers through my body, a feeling of doom”, IST participant Leah Mitchell said “you could feel the sadness in the atmosphere”.
“We passed a regular home with a chimney that was billowing smoke from its fireplace. The thought that rushed to my head was the crematoriums; the burning of our people,” she said. “I just couldn’t fathom how people could so comfortably live right next to Auschwitz knowing of the attempted genocide that was executed right outside their doorstep. You could see it from the windows of their homes.”
Mitchell said walking into Birkenau on the train tracks, “the coarse gravel beneath our feet”, it dawned on her that the prisoners of Auschwitz often had to “painstakingly walk on it barefoot in either freezing or boiling hot weather; burning the bottoms of their feet with either ice or heat”.
“Here we were complaining of the chilling zero degree weather in our snow boots and down jackets, yet the inmates lived through much harsher conditions with only the paper thin fabric of a sad excuse for clothing. It really makes you appreciate the comfortable lives we lead,” she said.
“I looked out at the vastness of the camp, the misty grey sky, the countless bare winter trees and tears began streaming down my face. The silence in Auschwitz speaks. The trees have a harrowing look as if they are aware of what they witnessed.”
Mitchell said Poland has been “an emotional rollercoaster but we have come out of it with closer and new friendships, and a stronger understanding of our heritage”.
“We have a greater appreciation for our lives and have a prouder Jewish identity. We have an immense gratitude for the sacrifices that our grandparents and great-grandparents made for being Jewish.”
She added, “We are so thrilled to be going to our dear homeland – Israel, a land of our nation’s freedom and pride.”
Moriah dean of Jewish life and learning Rabbi Benji Levy said, “IST is the journey of a lifetime and it is incredible for us to be opening it to the biggest cohort we have ever had.
“The democratisation of this wonderful program is thanks to the generosity of our community through the Moriah Foundation and Youth 2 Israel, for which these students will be forever grateful.”
Follow the students’ IST journey at www.israelstudytour.com.au.
EVAN ZLATKIS
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