So it's been a week since we returned, tired and weary after an intensive week, from the Poland Journey of Workshop 60. Having already gone through two separate preparation seminars, including 2 long days at the Ghetto Fighters' Holocaust Museum (the first ever Holocaust museum!), we set off at the early hour of 6am on Sunday March 6 for the big week ahead.
We touched down in Warsaw right on time, and after everyone had found their luggage (thankfully there was none lost in transit!), we headed for the long drive to Krakow. Once we arrived, we toured the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, named Kazimierz. The quarter was named after the 15th century king of Poland, who invited Jews to come and settle in the city. We toured a number of ancient synagogues, from the oldest and most traditional, to the newest synagogue known as "The Temple", and understood the essence of what Jewish life was through the centuries in poland. We examined the relationship that Jews had with the surrounding society, and we ended the day with a trip to the Galicia Museum, a museum which visually portrays the rich history of Jewish life in the area of Galicia, and the tragedy that the shoah created in destroying whole communities of Jews.
After arriving at our hotel for the night, the workshoppers had a peula based on the work of Julian Tuwim, a famous Polish and Jewish poet. It raised difficult questions of the dilemma of Jewish and national identity and how to reconcile those tensions.
The second day was a long day for the workshoppers. We spent the day at the infamous concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The morning was spent in Birkenau, which is largely untouched and preserved as it was during the Russian liberation. The afternoon was spent at the Auschwitz I camp, which is the site of the world-renowned museum. Through the day the workshop groups examined what camp life was like, and how these camps represented the reality according to the Nazi vision - one of hierarchy and inequality. The day ended with the first of the workshop/shnat run tekkesim (ceremonies), where the workshoppers were given responsibility to create a communal expression for the memory of the place.
In the evening, after returning back to the hotel, the workshoppers had a peula and discussion on the essence of humanity. Looking at texts and poems from Hannah Senesh and the Rambam, the workshoppers discussed what the essential elements are that make a person human. Given the difficult content of the day, the workshoppers had plenty to say!
On the third day, the group started at the notorious labour camp of Plaszow. Having watched Schindlers' List on the bus, it gave the group an important insight into the experience of Jews in Krakow and Plaszow during the Shoah. We headed from there to a tour of the Krakow Ghetto, which included parts of the ghetto wall still standing, as well as the famous pharmacy which kept spirits up during the Ghetto period. We also visited the old chava (communal living space) of the Akiva youth movement during the time of the Ghetto, and understood that their lives and experiences were based on very similar codes to the workshoppers' experience this year. We ended the morning by speaking about the Krakow uprising, when a Nazi-frequented cafe was bombed by the members of the youth movement. For lunch, the workshoppers got a first-hand feel of polish life, with 2 hours free time in the Sukiniece market square in Krakow. Here they were free to buy what they wanted for lunch, as well as idle through the market square and coffee shops.
We then headed out of Krakow, and took the long journey to Lublin, where we arrived late and subsequently did not have a peula that evening.
The following day we started with a visit to the recently renovated Chochamei Lublin Yeshiva. The Yeshiva was a centre of Chassidic thought and study before the Shoah, and was only recently returned ownership to the Jewish community of Poland. We then toured the city of Lublin, visiting buildings that were used as centres of policy during the Nazi regime. When the Nazis occupied Poland during World War II, Lublin became a regional centre, and many high-ranking SS and Gestapo offices were living in the city. We visited the old Gestapo headquarters, as well as the old Nazi party headquarters. We discussed the Nazi lifestyle, and how it infiltrated into all elements of life - culture, study, home life, even socializing.
In the afternoon we visited the Mjadanek concentration and death camp. With big parts still standing, it was an eerie experience for the workshoppers. We walked through the gas chambers and crematorium, as well as through the old bunkers of the inmates. We also arrived to the large monument at the end of the camp, which holds 7 tonnes of ashes, a testament to those who were murdered at the site. The day ended with another tekkes to commemorate that place, before we left Lublin and headed back to Warsaw.
That evening, the workshoppers had a peula based around the famous letter from Albert Camus - the 4th letter to a German friend. It brought up questions surrounding the content of the days' places, and looked at the ways of dealing with despair and finding hope in humanity and human interaction.
Our first full day in Warsaw started with a tour of the old and largest of the ghettos in Poland during the Shoah - the Warsaw ghetto. At its' biggest, the ghetto held up to 450,000 Jews, and took up almost a quarter of the city in its' size. We toured sections of the old wall that are still standing, as well as some of the old buildings that still stand from the ghetto period. We spoke about leadership dilemmas in the ghetto - ranging from the spiritual and youth leaders, to rabbis, to the Judenrat - what their approaches to leadership during the time were based on, and how they dealt with responsibility over their communities.
Then we headed to the Jewish cemetary of Warsaw. The cemetary is huge and we only got to see a small part of it, but we did manage to see some of the more distinctive graves and people buried there. Among them we spoke about Adam Czerniakow, the first head of the Judenrat of the Warsaw Ghetto during the shoah period, as well as Ludovic Zamenhof, creater of the Esperanto language, who are both buried there.
In the afternoon we visitied the national monument for the Polish Uprising of 1944, and spoke about the tragedy of the uprising act, in which massive numbers of Poles were killed. We also gained more insight into the modern day Polish culture, with a visit to the old city square of Warsaw. Originally destroyed during the War, it was rebuilt to resemble the exact old square of the city, complete with a statue of a mermaid in the middle - the symbol of the city.
After returning to our hotel, the workshoppers started the first part of a two-part peula. The peula revolved around readings from the book "During the days of destruction and revolt" By Tsivya Lubetkin. Tsivya Lubetkin was a member of the Dror movement and one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The readings examined what the movement was doing during the days both just before the war, and during the war, and the discussions went into depth about how it related to Habonim Dror today, and what we see as our role in society.
The penultimate day started with a drive out to the old Jewish shtetl of Tykocin. Originally in the area annexed to the USSR at the beginning of the war, the Jewish community of the shtetl was virtually destroyed in two days after the Nazi conquest of 1941. We started our visit at the famous old synagogue, which still stands nearly 400 years after it was established. We also visited the old market square where, on a fateful day in the spring of 1941, the 2,500 Jews of Tykocin were taken and driven to the nearby forest of Lopochowa, where they were shot and buried in mass graves. We drove the short journey to the forest and visited the 3 grave sites of the atrocity, where we ended with another meaningful tekkes, created by the workshoppers and shnatties together.
From there we headed to the memorial site of the death camp Treblinka. The infamous camp managed to murder almost 900,000 people over its' 12 months of operation, with the overwhelming majority of them Jews. Now a monument stands where the camp once stood, where the chanichim learnt about how the camp worked, as well as about the famous rebellion of the workers of the camp, who succeeded in escaping and alerting the world to the atrocities taking place there. The visit there, too, ended with a tekkes created by the hands of the chanichim.
We headed back to the hotel for our final night in Poland, and continued the discussions from the previous night, relating to the things we had seen through the day and the exciting itinerary coming up for the final day.
The last day of the journey was all about our movements' history both before, and during, the Shoah. We started the day visiting Grochov, which was the old Hachshara farm before, and even during, the war. Here, young 17-19 year old members of the Dror movement would come to learn farming and living communally, as well as learning and examining their future plans as a kvutza and their connection to aliya. We then headed to 34 Dzielna street, which is the site where the 'Bayit' (communal home) of Dror was during the Ghetto period. It was here that seminars were run, the movement leadership lived together, and the movement spirit was in action!
The afternoon all revolved around the heroic story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Starting from the memorial at the Umschlagplatz (deportation square) of the Warsaw Ghetto, the workshoppers spent the next two and a half hours walking the path of the main battles and stories of the ghetto uprising of April 1943 - a heroic act guided by the youth movements from all streams. The discussions finished at the memorial at Mila 18 - the bunker where a large number of the ghetto and youth movement leadership were gassed and killed at the hands of the Nazis, including the Warsaw Rebellion leader - Mordechai Anilewicz.
We then headed to the Rappaport Memorial - a national monument in commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters, for our final and closing tekkes. Filled with emotion and personal sentiment, it was a befitting end to a week full of intense discussion and understanding, strong support, and large and varied content.
Before heading to the airport we did stop for dinner and were treated to a night of Polish folk dancing and music. As is tradition - the workshoppers were also able to join in! Needless to say, it was a nice release after such a long week.
Within minutes of boarding the plane everyone was fast alseep, and upon arrival to Israel, they workshoppers were whisked back to Karmiel for a few days of rest and relaxation.
The workshoppers are back into the swing of things on kaveret now, and have started preparations for the annual "Pasechet" English-speaking camps which will take place in their locations for messima (volunteering projects)in the week before Pesach chofesh. Next weekend will be our annual May-Day seminar, which will be the first chance for the workshoppers to meet and get to know the new Australian, New Zealand, and South African Shnat groups. We will be examing labour and exploitation in the world today, and the role of Habonim in our communities in creating solidarity and standing up against oppression, exploitation, and enslavement in all its' forms.
Woah - i need to take a breath! It has been a busy few weeks, but the ride still has a large section to go! I wish you all a shavua tov, and hope that you had a chag sameach for purim yesterday!
Until next time,
Leon.
Workshoppers explore the rich history of the old Kazimierz Jewish quarter in Krakow
Workshoppers at the famous site of the notorious forced Labour Camp - Plaszow
Workshoppers pose outside the old communal apartment of the Akiva movement in the Krakow Ghetto!
Tekkes group gets ready at the Majdanek camp
Workshoppers at the Polish Uprising Memorial
The tekkes group in the Lopochowa forest - commemorating the Jewish community of Tykocin
The tekkes at the memorial to the murdered in Treblinka
The whole group of Workshop and Shnat come together in front of one of the sites of our collective roots - The Hachshara farm at Grochov
The 2 workshop groups start the Path of Heroism of the Ghetto Uprising - in the memorial of the deportation square of the Warsaw Ghetto
Workshoppers atop the monument of the bunker at Mila 18
Singing "Mi Ha'ish" at the ancient synagogue of Tykocin
Dancing during our Polish music experience!
