Sunday, July 18, 2010

July 18, 2010






We left Zamosc early this morning, driving south east, and arrived at Belzec as they opened the gates. The train tracks end right at the gates of the museum. Belzec, along with Sobibor and Treblinka, was constructed for the sole purpose of killing Jews. There was no selection process and only a few victims were kept to do the menial jobs, and then they were eliminated as well. This was all part of Operation Reinhard which ran from 1941-1943 when close to 450,000 Jews were killed. There is nothing left there as the Nazis disassembled and plowed under all remnants of the camp along with the ashes of the victims. In order to preserve the spot, it was decided that the memorial would cover the whole camp area and it is covered with dark gray rocks with a path leading through the hillside that seems to go deep into the hill. There are rusted metal bars sticking up at along the top of the path. At the end, there is a large concrete wall. On the opposite side of the end wall, are written first names of the known victims. Elaine, our director, asked the women in the group to accompany her to pay tribute to her grandmother, and two aunts, who were killed in Belzec. Her grandmother had just given birth to her fifth child, and was taken from the hospital. No one knows what happened to the baby, a girl. Elaine told us more about her grandmother, Malke, and she and one of our Jewish teachers said Kaddish. I lit a memorial candle and we had a moment of silence. The following poem was written by my roommate Debi:

For Elaine

The Pregnant silence hovers over
Women who have given life
Those who will give life
Those who have felt the quickened
movements of life within us.
The Pregnant silence hovers
Collectively we are silent.
Individually we scream out
We are the harbingers of life
We are the givers,
Yet we are suffocated in the
Pregnant silence that hovers
in this place.

After all the facts and figures that we have been learning, this event brought everything back into focus - these were real people - The area is definitely in the view of the town, and though people knew that something was going on, they were silent.
After the starkness and silence at Belzec, I noticed a Catholic cemetery on the way to Krakow and took a picture. It was covered with flowers, bright with so many signs of remembrance - quite a comparison.
We then got back on the bus for a long ride to Krakow, made even longer by a huge traffic jam that kept us crawling for over an hour. Krakow was worth the wait though. Our hotel is close to the Old Town and we walked through the Market Square on our way to dinner - what a charming city with no vehicles and people strolling or watching the strollers! There was lots of music and activity and we had a hard time not just standing still. Though the day started out very warm, it cooled down with a pleasant shower when we came out of dinner and we had an enjoyable walk "home."
I spoke to Maria, a distant relation, who is going to help me meet up with my grandmother's family on Tuesday night. We are going to try to meet tomorrow when I return from our day at Auschwitz.

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