Juxtaposition: A Junior's Poland Experience
“Words seem too flimsy a thing to begin to encapsulate the brutality perpetrated against our people by the hands of men.”
Editor’s Note: Isaac Levy, the author, has been on TRY—a semester abroad program—in Israel. The following is his insightful reflection on experiencing Poland.
Poland is a beautiful country. Driving through the countryside I was faced with view after view of green farmland, lush forests, flat untouched swathes of land. This rural beauty interrupted only by the occasional city, cities either sprawling and advanced or old and breathtaking. This beauty I did not expect, yet neither did I expect to see the true horror wrought against the Jewish community of Poland. Where does one even begin in describing this type of annihilation? Words seem too flimsy a thing to begin to encapsulate the brutality perpetrated against our people by the hands of men, men far to often who were our neighbors. Rather than speak of my entire journey, as important as each aspect was, I will share three key experiences and how they impacted me.
A babies foot, a thing so soft, so innocent. The foot of a baby is adorable, the embodiment of innocence. How could one ever look down at a creature so cute and irreproachable with anything other than love? What type of sickness must exist within an individual to allow them to harm a thing so blameless? These questions and many others raced through my head as I stared down at the shoes laying before me. The shoes I gazed upon were not adult’s shoes, not beat up workers boots, rather they were the soft tiny shoes of an infant; an individual who had truly never committed a crime, never even caused another harm. This is the moment where I was struck by the true evil that was carried out during the Shoa, this was the moment I realized I would never have an answer to my questions, as there is truly no explanation for what could drive one to take the life of a child so young, so helpless.
One million one hundred thousand Jews. A number so massive, so unfathomable, and yet only a fraction of the total deaths by the hands of the Nazi’s. Before me, lay the remnants of these individuals lives, their brushes, their siddurs, all the items most precious to them. The Jews of Auschwitz had come from places far and wide, from families observant and secular, from Sephardic and Ashkenazi descent. Each individual killed was a unique spark which this world will never see again. The Nazi’s did not see each individual for their unique spark, rather they saw them purely under a single mantle of description, that being, Jewish. There was no discrimination, no questioning of who a jew was, there was only the attempted annihilation of all individuals of Jewish descent. The Nazi’s our greatest enemies, our most cruel tormentor did not care who we were; they did not care who was a Reform Jew, or an Orthodox Jew, or a black Jew, or a white Jew. They viewed all Jews as a single whole. The Nazi’s did something I am ashamed to say we have never been able to do on our own. They looked past our differences, past our divisions and saw us an entity singular in being. Walking on the tracks of Birkenau I felt shame, shame that I and my people were allowing the Nazi’s to do something we could not, shame that the Nazi’s could see a truth so few of my own people could, the truth that the bonds which unite us are stronger than those which separate us.
Israel is your home. If I had a penny for each time I have heard this statement, I would be a man with many more pennies. Hearing this statement, however, doesn't make it true, home is much more than an idea: home is a place of safety, a place of security, and above all home is a place of family. Stepping onto the floor of Ben Gurion airport, I was struck by an immediate overpowering wave of relief: I felt my shoulders relax, my neck loosen, my heart rate drop. Why you ask? Because I had returned home. For the first time in my life, I understood what Israel really was, I understood what it means for Israel to be the Jewish homeland; in Israel, I can feel safe and secure in my Judaism and my way of life, here in Israel I do not fear another holocaust. This switch in my head, this change of perception, led itself immediately to another. The individuals around me, each and every one of them, are part of my family. Israel is not only my home, the people within her borders they are my brothers and sisters, my extended family; a family which together will continue to create, grow, love, and beyond all ensure the survival of our people, the Jewish People.
Poland was difficult. Walking into the child's forest, past sights of horrors beyond my conception was gut-wrenching, yet Poland was also enlightening. The three moments spoken about above were by no means the only three powerful moments I experienced, rather they were three out of hundreds of moments I experienced on this journey of inner growth. This expedition I embarked upon is by no means one I have finished, Poland was the first step on a journey I will walk the rest of my life: never again will I look at a child's foot the same way, never again will I take for granted all the opportunities and blessings I have been granted, and above all never again will I doubt the importance of supporting Israel. Poland has affirmed within me the truth of the following statement, “wherever I stand, I stand with Israel.”
