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May 2, 1997

"Right now I am in a field between the rows
of barracks and I observed out of this field
of slaughter a flower growing from the cen-
ter of it. I guess the flower shows that at
one time this wasn't a field where people
were killed. It was a field where children
played and people sat and were happy."

— Adam Globerson

"I just walked through an entire barrack of
shoes ... There was a certain red high heel
that grabbed my attention ... I thought of the
woman who at one time owned that shoe.
Maybe she wore it to a dance, a party or a
special event. The woman who owned that
shoe had a life, a body, a soul and a story.
That lady wore that shoe for the last time
when she entered Majdanek."

— Elyse Stettner

"It is hard to comprehend what the people
who were sent here must have been think-
ing as they were herded into the long corri-
dors that we just walked through. There
were windows in the hallways in the 'disin-
fection chambers.' I could see long scratch-
es, obviously left by the fingernails of
people hoping to climb out, in the walls be-
neath the windows. The only difference be-
tween us and them is that we knew we'd
return back to the hotel tonight and they
knew that they would never see freedom,
love or joy again."

— Michael Simon

I am sitting here
Here on a mound
A mound of what
What is it, dirt, ash, my people
People who did not settle here inten-
tionally but were forced
Forced to live and die
Die in another man's reign
In the camp of Majdanek

— Noah Stern

May 3, 1997

'This morning we went to the only Or-
thodox synagogue left in Warsaw that
was not destroyed by the Nazis ...
Following the service, we went out-
side for a kiddish. The men and
women ftirmed circles and began to
sing and dance ... We all sang,
danced and laughed. It felt wonder-
ful!!! I wanted every Pole to hear us. I
wanted to shout: SEE, LOOK HEAR
ME!!! I AM HERE! I AM ALIVE!!! I re-
alized the importance of me being
here. I also realized the importance of
the words 'Never Forget.' I have nev-
er in all my life, even in Israel at the
wall, been more proud as I am right
now to be a Jew."

— Elyse Stettner

May 4, 1997

"As the ceremony began, the skies
opened up. I felt that it was almost fit-
ting for it to rain on a day in which we
were commemorating the deaths of
over six million of our ancestors ...
They never had a chance to meet us
because of the hatred of Hitler and
the Nazis ... I could not hold back. Af-
ter thinking of all the pain and suffer-
ing my Bubble, Zayde and their '
relatives went through, I broke out in
tears midway through the ceremony,
and didn't stop until nearly an hour lat-
er.

11

70

— Marc Weiss

"We thought they needed to get to know
each other better away from the classes,"
Ms. Weiss said.
An ice breaker was scheduled; about
half of the students attended. The
madrichim had the participants role play
situations they might encounter during
the trip. In one skit, a Reform girl and an
Orthodox boy pretended to sit on a bus
and converse with one another.
As the conversation ensued, the girl felt
more comfortable asking a question she
might not have otherwise voiced.
"So, are you against getting booty or
something?" she said.
Unsure of what the girl meant, the boy
asked her to elaborate on the word "booty."
Using a string of euphemisms for sexual
touching, the girl conveyed the essence of
her question.
From that conversation, the Orthodox
students began to explain to the Reform
and Conservative students what it meant
to be shomer negiah, following a prohibi-
tion against any touching which might
lead to sexual intercourse.
"At first, I thought, 'Uh oh,"' Ms. Weiss
recalled. "But then the teens took over.
The Orthodox students were explaining
what it meant to be shomer negiah and
the other teens were asking questions."
"They began to understand each other,"
she said.

' e the ice breakers and lec-
tures introduced the teens to
each other, the first inde-
pendent movements toward
unity began in a park in Warsaw.
After spending 15 hours flying from De-
troit to Newark, Newark to Montreal and
finally Montreal to Warsaw, the Detroiters
were tired. To make matters worse, many
had to jockey for sleeping space in the plane
as a contingent from Montreal sang,
cheered, wrestled and giggled their way
through the night. Immediately after the
flight, the Detroit group boarded two dank
touring buses. They headed to the city
where they raced through a series of sights,
their travel punctuated by fact-packed lec-
tures and more admonishments for not be-
ing able to recall portions of the required
reading.
Taking a break from the lectures, the
teens grabbed the first of several identical
kosher, bagged lunches and headed to the
benches in a park not far from where the
Warsaw Ghetto burned.
At first, they segregated themselves.
Then a few of the Orthodox teens wandered
over to talk to the Reform teens, and a few
of the Conservative and Reform teens drift-
ed to the bench where the Orthodox youth
were finishing their candy bars and apples.
"Can you believe this?" Ms. Wainess said.
"It's working."

`This could have been another trip with
a homogeneous group. This," Rabbi Bitran
predicted, gesturing to the teens, "is going
to make the big difference."
Soon, there was no separation. It was
simply a mass of teen agers, exhausted
from traveling, hanging out in the middle
of the Warsaw park, a place where Jews
were once forbidden to stroll.

rom Warsaw to Krakow, from
cemetery to synagogue, from
yeshiva to death camp, the teens
spent much of their time on tour-
ing buses that smelled of sweat.
In between games of Euchre and spon-
taneous burping contests, matters of dif-
ferences were brought up.
"Why don't you keep kosher?"
"Do you believe God wrote the Torah?"
"If you are Orthodox, how come your
rabbi doesn't have a beard?"
"Do Conservative Jews drive on Shab-
bos?"

Below left:
On Yom Hashoah, Risa Heller placed a marker at
the decaying crematorium in Birkenau, a sub-camp
of Auschwitz.

Below:
Elyse Stettner wrote thoughts about her
experiences on sheets taped to the walls of a
Warsaw hotel. The reflective moment took place
the night before the March of the Living.