56 Friday,' April 22, 1977 TIE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Holocaust Frames A Student's View of Poland (Editor's note: The follow- ing letter by Tamar Kreinin was written to her parents in East Lansing while Tamar was a member of the 1976 United Jewish Ap- peal College Leadership Study Tour of Eastern Eu- rope and Israel. Mrs. Krei- nin wrote to The Jewish News : "After reading your eloquent expression of re- membrance of martyrs and heroes at our Seder, and realizing that it is .about time again for pilgrimages to landmarks- of our heri- tage, I-thought that perhaps you and your readers may be interested in the en- closed impressions of our daughter.) My Dear Family: We are in Warsaw, PO- land. We got here Friday af- ternoon and went to the Jewish cemetery, over- grown and crowded and run- -- down. A small, old man is the only one to care for it and he is old and dying. This is representative of the Jewish community here—old and dying. Sad. Triste. While we were there we met a beautiful, strong woman. She lived in Poland during the war and was in there are nice, fun parts to this city. the Warsaw Ghetto. She Saturday morning we wds lucky: she was taken went to one of the only syna- in by a Christian family, de- ported for two years to a la- gogues left. It's good as most of Warsaw has been bor camp, then escaped to Suisse. Her husband completely ruined during worked for the under- the war and has been ground, he died two years rebuilt. The temple sur- vived. But it's very sad, the ago, she came to his grave. is falling apart and Now she writes songs • building only a handful of old, old .(which are on records). It men pray—no new life. was so important to her There are maybe 6,000 that she tell us stories—so Jews left in Poland, they we wouldn't forget. Fan- are old, the Jewish culture tas-tic. is dying opt. We spent 'till 1 First impressions of War- p.m. with these old men in saw, Poland: very stereo- their temple. People from typic: dieary: after the fa- the U.S. give them argent, books, and- other things cade of a bright, shiny hotel they need. \ you look out the windows to Something fantastic : this see grey apartment build- old, old rabbi (orthodox) ac- ings. After grey apartment building, luckily the many cepted Michal as a rabbi (though she's a woman), green - trees give it some And we talked to these life. We are constantly with men—again they wanted us to remember. The only way government assigned for me to communicate was guides who go with us everywhere. Sometimes Hebrew! In the afternoon we took I'm scared to say or do a "walking tour" espically things. Though I still have this fear, my stereotypes to the old city. It's nice have been broken down there, they have rebuilt it just as it used to be, and some. I might not agree with their way of life or it's pretty: painted build- feel that I could live here,, ings and flowers similar to but the people do smile and the square in Bruxelles. Also all around the square are people selling paintings. I met a French woman who was born here and talked some French! After dinner we discussed our day—great discussion. This whole thing is so fantas- tic—so much to learn. I only wish I was teaching Sunday school so I could teach this all to my kids ! I could excite them so much! We are driving to Krakow on a bus via Lublin. So I want to look at the scenery. It's flat, green, trees. Small grey cement or wood houses, wheat fields. Well the land got hillier and we got to Lublin which was the capital for hundreds of years before Warsaw. There are now 20 Jews; used to be 50,000. Anyhow we saw Majda- nek concentration camp. This camp went on for five years and was primarily for Jews. It was hor- rible—anger and -hor- ror—you feel it all through your body and want to be sick . . . Rooms just filled (literally) with shoes; the Germans_,were going to .use them for industry. It is in- credible. At the end is a huge (side of one-half of - our house) pile of ashes of everyone murdered. The place now is silent. If I closed my eyes I could be in Nova Scotia but I can still feel I'm not. I wonder how a place where so many Jews were murdered can be so peaceful and yet it doesn't seem right that noise should disturb it. The wind blows in mourn- ing. We got to Krakow late last night—dinner at mid- night. Then sat around and played. guitar and sang! The sun rises early here, like at 3 a.m. and I haven't once yet gone to sleep when it's dark! Of all of Poland, Krakow has best preserved what the Jews had in Po- land—their culture. There used to be a flourishing Jew- ish life for hundreds of years here. We went to Auschwitz and B i r k e n a u today—horrible—not quite so hard because Majdanek prepared us. Auschwitz had a rubber factory—is more compact—things are closer together—brick buildings. When liberated Jan. 27, 1945 still had 60,000 people there. At least 4 million had been murdered, 3 million Jews. The Polish guide had no emotion (not the govern- ment assigned guide, but one from the camp), and wouldn't answer questions pertaining to Jews. The slo- gan was "Work makes you. free." There were rooms filled with -- hair—piles of suitcases. This hit home—the suitcases had names on them. Downstairs in the bar- racks are three rooms: two are three feet by three feet, four people put here to starve, the third room a little larger, 40 people put here to suffocate—one tiny, barred up window. Bi rkenau—huge, spread out—"Four million people suffered and died here at the hands of the Nazi mur- derers between the years 1940 and 1945" . . . written in 17 languages on a shrine here. After going to the camps (you) I have a very strong feeling for wanting to be in Israel ! I can't wait 'till we go there! Love, Tamar