We began our 6th day in Poland at the Lodz Ghetto. As we toured the city of Lodz, we were thrown back into the past, as we saw the outline of the former ghetto, so carefully traced by Polish children. Scott allowed us a glimpse into what life in the ghetto was really like, as told by his grandfather. We learned about the leadership dilemmas of Chaim Rumkowski, who was forced to make difficult decisions in the face of impending doom.
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| Police station that was used for torture. |
Rumkowski's is but one of many stories. His struggle? "Cutting off limbs to save the body". It was Rumkowski's difficult task to somehow fulfill the Nazi demand for Jewish bodies while trying to save as many people as he could. In order to keep his factories running, which he believed were the only things standing in between the Jews of Lodz and extermination, he offered the Nazis only the sick, elderly, and very young children. In the end, Rumkowski's actions managed to save about a third of the Jews in Lodz, but he himself met his end at the hands of the Nazis. Whether or not he was regarded as a hero, or even remotely successful, was and is a major topic of controversy. Did Rumkowski really try to achieve survival, or did he simply delay the inevitable and assist the German war machine? With that dilemma in mind, we left the ghetto to prepare for Shabbat at Beit Warszawa.
Shabbat in Poland. Shabbat, which is supposed to be a time of celebration and joy, placed right at the end of our very emotionally trying week. In spite of the tragedy we had learned about the past week, I think we managed to make Shabbat a beautiful and joyous experience, made all the better by the fact that we got to enjoy it with the members of Beit Warszawa, who are learning how to be Jewish, and who are bringing a Jewish presence back to Warsaw. Our time singing and dancing after Kabbalat Shabbat services should go to show how happiness and life can rise out of the ashes of the Shoah, in spite of the Shoah. Did you draw meaning from our time at Beit Warszawa? Did you feel that it was a good experience to add to our Masa?
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After T'fillah on Saturday morning, we went to the Polin Museum to learn primarily about Jewish life in Poland before the Shoah. We were left on our own to explore the museum and learn for ourselves the stories of how a Jewish presence grew in Poland. We saw the rise of Jewish merchants in Polanya, which translates to "here lies God". And it seemed that God was with the Jewish people as their economic status grew and they led lives of comfort in Paradisus. We also learned about the eventual decline of a Jewish presence in Poland following a rapid development of Jewish and Hebrew culture. The events of the Shoah seem more bitter in light of the developing movements towards modernity in the Jewish world at this time, as well as the flourishing Hebrew and Yiddish culture in the form of theatre and newspapers.
We concluded our Masa with Havdallah at the Rappaport Statue and final discussions at Chabad. We reviewed (or attempted to review) notable examples of traditions before the Holocaust, and people whose behaviors we would like to emulate. Our responses during that discussion were a bit all across the board, so I would like to leave you with one last question: What is the importance of going to Poland as Jews, and does joint focus on life prior to the Shoah and focus on the events of the Shoah make either less important or noteworthy?
As a Muslim is required to make Haij to Mecca once in their lives I believe that we as Jews have an obligation to go to Poland during our lifetime. The Shoa is a major part of our history therefor I feel so strongly that it is important to visit Poland in order to see the contrast of Jewish life before and after the war. It is important for us to know and understand what was before the nazis destroyed much of Poland because many of our roots lay there. By visiting shtettles and old yeshivas it makes our journey much more personal when we then visit death camps and try to comprehend the lives that were wrongfully terminated.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the first question, I believe Chaim did the best he knew how in his situation. Although I hate what he did, he was put in a situation that many Jews were put in. They were given a choice with no good solution or correct answer. Ending the week with services at Beit Warszawa was extremely meaningful. After learning about so much of the destruction of the Jewish culture during the Shoah, it was great to fell such a rush of culture that day. I believe it is so important to travel to Poland and I am so glad that we ha the opportunity to go there. I learned so much about our history as Jews. I believe all Jews should make the effort to visit Poland some time in their lives.
ReplyDeleteRumkowski was a utilitarian. He ultimately sought "the greatest good for the greatest number", a philosophy I never agree with. In the end he only saved a few hundred lives out of over a hundred thousand and prolonged the inevitable suffering of everyone in the ghetto. I admire his attempt to try to preserve Judaism, but his method was fundamentally flawed.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that a visit to Poland is vital as a pilgrimage for the Jews. Perhaps for Ashkenazim who draw heritage there, but many Jews have no affiliation with Europe. Visiting Poland simply to pay respects for those who died in the Shoah only places value in people once they are dead. For instance, after the Churban Babylon became the center of Jewish learning and Jewish life, yet no one makes a pilgrimage there to celebrate the richness of Jewish culture (even if they could they probably wouldn't, considering current events). To visit Poland for the dead is to sanctify death rather than life.
-Noah Arnold
Going to Poland was a fantastic experience that I hope every other Jew get to go through. It was so important to juxtapose the death with the life. We all know how important it is not only for Jews but also people in general to learn about the shoah, but all the knowledge and facts in the world could not compare to the stories that the cities and the camps told. They could not have prepared me for the wave of emotion i felt when entering a gas chamber or seeing bone fragments of real people of seeing the massive pile of ashes. The juxtaposition between life and death was so crucial because we needed to understand the lives of jews before and after the shoah to recognise how much life was lost.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of mixed feelings about Chaim, while I do appreciate what he did by keeping thousands of Jews out of the camps, I despise him for what he did to the hundreds of thousands whose lives he traded away. I'm very glad I am not in the situation he was in, because I would not know how to respond, and the fact that he responded at all deserves respect.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Beit Warsawva, i felt like it was something hastily added on to our trip because it was the first time this trip extended onto Shabat. I also felt like just the idea of going to another country to learn the history and culture, and then continue with our own traditions to remember them is idiotic. This was something that bothered me all throughout this trip.
I agree with Noah on the idea that there is nothing especially holy about Poland. WHile I do think it is an experience every Azhkenasi should do, there should not be a requirement, and it should not be viewed as a Haj, but as a visit to pay respects, as we do every year on the Azkara of a loved one.
I thought that visiting the synagogue was very important in our Poland trip. It was a great way to bring back Jewish life in Poland and see how the Poles are doing it. I think that it important to learn about life before the holocaust as well as during. I think that when we focus on life during the holocaust however it can make life before seem less important. I also think it is important that we focus a lot on bringing Jewish life back to places where it was lost.
ReplyDeleteI think it's hard to form an opinion on what I would have done and sacrifices I would have made because I can't put myself in those shoes. I don't think I have the right to judge whether it was a smart decision or not. Going to the synagogue was really fun and special for me. It was beautiful to see such a thriving Jewish community in real life TODAY in Poland. It made the whole week feel less hopeless. As Jews, we must consider the masa to Poland as a necessary and at least desirable goal. It develops you deeper as a Jew because of all the meaning and know;edge you gain from learning about your people's history and what happened in the past.
ReplyDeleteI think that Rumkowski did the best he could. He had a passion and love for the children he took care of, and I think he maybe knew that letting the children go to their deaths while he lived might have caused him more pain than making the children as happy as possible in their last moments. I don’t see what he did as delaying the inevitable, nor do I think he assisted the German war machine. He attempted to resist the war machine, I think. Instead of letting the impending knowledge of his and his childrens’ deaths make his last moments terrible, he dressed the children up to sing songs and dance and be cheerful in their last moments. That shows incredible strength. I absolutely loved our time at Beit Warzsawa. It was incredible to be a part of a Jewish Reform community in an area where such negativity occurred for our people. I haven’t enjoyed services in such a long time, and I truly enjoyed the service we were a part of. I may be biased because of the violin, but I really did feel like it was the first time I’d felt a connection during prayer in a long time. I think that having a Shabbat in Poland as part of our Masa at Beit Warszawa made our Masa complete. I wouldn’t have wanted to end our week in any other way. After a week of learning the good and the bad (with the bad weighing most heavily in my mind), having an upbeat and joyful evening with a local Jewish community was perfect. I think that all Jews need to go to Poland at some point in their lives. I also think that there should be equal focus on the good and bad and the life before, during, and after the Shoah. All of the events regarding the Shoah are important and noteworthy. Nothing should be regarded in any less importance than anything else when it comes to the life of the Jewish people and the Shoah.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Coleman
I think that what Rumkowski did was admirable. He made the ultimate sacrifice to provide happiness for the children in their last moments while he could've easily saved himself. I don't see this as something that would be done with everyone. I don't think he was in any way helping the German war effort either, he just took what came to him and made the best of what he had. I think our time at Beit Warzsawa was both fun, and a good learning experience. We experienced a completely different type of Judaism foreign to us yet we still had a connection through Hebrew and the prayers we did that night. It's astounding to me that even after everything that happened in Poland there are still communities like this today. I don't normally enjoy or participate in services (who could've guessed that one) but when we went there I can genuinely say that I really enjoyed how they held services there. Lastly I think that every Jew if possible should go and learn about pre shoah Jewry in addition to the shoah because it's an important part of history to remember. Something we need to learn in order to educate others later in time and pass on our knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI think that Rumkowski's actions were made to try to save as many people that he could in the Lodz ghetto. Others might think that he made these decisions to save himself but he also saved many people that could've been taken by the Nazis to their death. I think that Shabbat in Beit Warzswa was the perfect way to end our Masa to Poland because it showed that Jewish heritage and tradition is still thriving even though we lost so much in the Holocaust. Similar to everyone else, I believe that every Jew should travel to Poland to learn about Jewish life before the Holocaust, the events/resistance during the Holocaust, and the aftermath of the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed our time at Beit Warzswa. It was one of the most enlightening and optimistic parts of our trip for me.
ReplyDeleteI think that going to Poland as Jews is important because in addition to shedding light on our own greatest tragedy, it gives us a reason to remember tragedies occurring all over the world today. We are supposed to be a "light upon the nations," and the darkness of the Holocaust reminds us of world's need for action.
As a Jew, going to Poland (in my eyes) is just as important as a Jew going to ancient ruins of our past in Israel. Both show our lives before and the destruction during and the left-overs of life after. It all makes up our identity as a Jewish people and one must know what one can in order to understand why they are who they are.
ReplyDeleteI see no reason why learning about life before and during the Holocaust would render the other one as inferior knowledge. They are double reasoning as to why a Jew should go to Poland. So really, they do not make one less important than the other; but they compliment one another in a way that makes each even more important to know.
My mesa to Poland has been one of the most meaningful trips in my life. It has given me a different perspective to see what Jews suffered through during this time of atrocity. The enormity of the size of the camps was a eye widening experience that I do not believe I could have gotten anywhere else. Focusing on the time before the holocaust does not take away from the event instead it adds to it. To see what we had and then lost gives us a grasp of what it really meant to all these Jews living in the camps.
ReplyDeleteMy mesa to Poland has been one of the most meaningful trips in my life. It has given me a different perspective to see what Jews suffered through during this time of atrocity. The enormity of the size of the camps was a eye widening experience that I do not believe I could have gotten anywhere else. Focusing on the time before the holocaust does not take away from the event instead it adds to it. To see what we had and then lost gives us a grasp of what it really meant to all these Jews living in the camps.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the importance of going to Poland as Jews, and does joint focus on life prior to the Shoah and focus on the events of the Shoah make either less important or noteworthy?
ReplyDeleteTo me the importance of going to Poland as Jews is about being connected to those who perished in a stronger way then just learning about it in your classroom. My masa to Poland was absolutely without a doubt the best week of my EIE experience. I go to stand in the very place where my ancestors were and I go to leave which is something they weren't able to do. I think that going to Poland gives me the opportunity to teach future generations and to inspire others to make this Masa.
sorry i copied the question there
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