By Yaniv Rosner Wachs, Bus 5 Staff
As we enter Shabbat, I took a moment to reflect on the past week and all of the things that we, the staff and chanichim, did in this intense time in Europe. We came here in order to learn and understand the life of the Jewish community in Prague before the war. To see how our people lived and prospered in this foreign land, and then uprooted from their homes and sent to a literal living hell. For some of the teens it was their first time in Europe, as well as their first time engaging in thought and teachings of Jewish life in a different continent. You could see that it was a lot for them to take in, to try and picture the life of Jews in Europe before the war. But even more so, to imagine and see the life of Jews during the war. We visited Terzin, the ‘model’ concentration camp that was part of the Nazi propaganda against Jews. It was a little taste of the life that the Jews lived during the war, and you could see how it shook them. We held a preparation program for the upcoming visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. During the program I could see the expectation, the terror and the emotion in the teens eyes. They spoke from their hearts, shared what they hope to learn, spoke about how they were scared, but still wanted to go and witness the horror that took place over there. I was incredibly surprised by the honesty and bravery that the teens showed during this program. Today, as we visited the camp, I witnessed how each one of the teens handled the shocking sights with the utmost bravery: some cried, some didn’t. Some spoke, some were silent. But at the end of the day, each one of them did what 1.2 million Jews wished they could: they left Auschwitz with a new perspective on life and themselves. I am proud of our teens and can only keep on looking forward and learn more from them. As I did today.
This blog was written on Friday, June 28, 2019.
