CLOSE-UP

Can You
Appreciate
Israel
If You
Haven't
Seen
Auschwitz?

Students pause for reflection at Auschwitz.

A growing number of
tours for Jewish
youngsters are traveling
to Poland in search of
roots, history and
renewal.

The barracks at Auschwitz.

CARL SCHRAG

Special to the Jewish Times

W

arsaw — It is mid-
night at the Holi-
day Inn and several
dozen American teenagers
are sitting in a circle, shar-
ing their feelings and im-
pressions after a long day of
emotional encounters with
their roots.
Their first full day in

Carl Schrag is a freelance
writer living in Israel. This
story was made possible by
a grant from The Fund For
Journalism on Jewish Life, a
project of The CRB Founda-
tion of Montreal, Canada.
Any views expressed are
solely those of the author.

28

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1990

Poland was dominated by a
visit to Treblinka, where the
Nazis murdered hundreds of
thousands of Jews during
the Holocaust. They were
transfixed by the sight of a
stone monument surround-
ed by 17,000 boulders, rocks
and pebbles; each one of
them representing a differ-
ent community whose resi-
dents perished in
Treblinka's gas chambers.
"It shocked me that the
place was so beautiful, with
greenery, trees and even a
strawberry patch," one
teenager said. "I can't un-
derstand why it happened,"
someone else added. "But
there's something very se-
cure knowing that the Nazis
failed in their ultimate plan
to destroy the Jews. They

tried to destroy the culture
of Torah in Poland, but it
survives in the States and
especially in Israel."
"Hitler's master plan was
to destroy the entire Jewish
people," another girl said
defiantly. "He did not suc-
ceed. We are here."
"My reaction to Treblinka
was all intellectual," said
one young man, almost
apologetically, "I did not
freak out."
"The freakiest part," yet
another member of this
group, organized by the Na-
tional Council of Synagogue
Youth (NCSY), said quietly,
"is that we went to
Treblinka and then re-
turned. They never re-
turned?'
A few years ago, conver-

After a difficult day at Maidanek, students meet to share feelings and unwind
in Lublin.

sations like these would
never have taken place in
Poland. Since the Holocaust
destroyed the 3.5 million
Jews that had lived there for
nearly 1,000 years, Jews had
shied away from the coun-
try.
In recent months, the en-
tire world has focused on
Poland's incredible journey
to democracy. But the re-
newed Jewish interest
predates recent events in
Poland; in fact, it has little
to do with present-day cir-
cumstances.

Since the early 1980s,
thousands of Jewish teenag-
ers from Israel, the United
States, Great Britain and
elsewhere have travelled to
Poland in search of a com-
plex combination of roots,
history and renewal. Each
journey varies, depending
upon who sponsors it and
who participates, but they
all share common lessons.
"The impact of the pro-
gram is enormous," said
United Synagogue Youth
assistant director Jules
Gutin, who has led USY

