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Students' experiences - Day 6 (Sunday)Sunday Oct. 18thDay six
After a very meaningful Shabbat in Cracow, we got back on the busses at 4:45 am to continue our journey in Poland. Our first stop was a shul in Oswiecim, about an hour away from Cracow, where we davened shacharit and ate breakfast. From the shul we got back on the busses and departed for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Getting dropped off on the death camp’s original train tracks and marching to the infamous tower at the entrance while hearing an excerpt from Eli Wiesel’s ‘Night’ was really moving and helped us connect with our ancestors. After learning about the camp’slayout, and hearing heartbreaking stories from the selection process, we took a right on the march of the dead, leading us to the remnants of the crematoriums. Beside crematorium III was the sauna where people entered as free men and after being stripped of their clothing, shaven, and given a number, left as object slacking identities. Seeing the horrific living conditions and filthy bathroom and shower situations helped us all gain an appreciation for our homes and what we have today. “Arbeit Macht Frei,” work will make you free, were the words which welcomed us into Auschwitz I. We were all given headsets and were led on an audio tour throughout the camp. In Block 27, we closed off with Rav Brown’s eulogy to his mother and left while holding our Israeli flags and singing together. On our way back to Cracow, we took a short detour to Czhrnow, the citywhere my grandmother Lotty Sperling lived before the war. Although the name of the street was changed, we were easily directed to the right street, yet had a more difficult time finding the exact address. Finally we found the house, and it was incredible to see where my grandmother once lived and imagine how different her life was before the war. I was able to see the cellar in the back of the house where my grandmother hid before being captured by the Germans, and take many pictures to bring back to her. Although today was very tiring, it was truly amazing to see what life was like before the war as we saw at my grandmother’s house, and to see how horrible the conditions were during the war as we saw in Auschwitz.
- Adina Sperling and Liana Grosinger
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