OTHER VIEWS Shades Of Poland's Dark Past because their bodies were turned to ashes, and we have no cemeteries. Basically, our trip to Poland was to commemorate our own victims of Nazism. In addition to our parents and sister, we lost about 50 members of our extended family. AM OFFEN Community Views 1 just returned from my home- town, Krakow, Poland, with my wife, Hyla. Krakow's prewar Jewish population consisted of more than 70,000. Although it is a historic and beautiful city, it pained me greatly that it has ceased to exist as a once- thriving Jewish center of learning, commerce and intelligentsia, due to the brutal, inhumane Nazis. Krakow is now almost devoid of Jews — fewer than 200 remain. On Shabbat morning, we could barely form a minyan in the famous Remuh Shul, in the old Jewish section. Nearby, there are about a half-dozen, Jewish-style restaurants playing klezmer music nightly. Sadly, neither the players nor the owners are Jewish. Sam Offen is a West Bloomfield resident and Congregation Beth Ahm member. He endured the Krakow ghetto and the German concentration camp at Plaszow of "Schindler's List" fame. He was liberated in Mauthausen on May 5, 1945, by the American 11th Armored Division. Hyla and Sam Offen in Zakopane, a resort town in the southern Tatra Mountains south of Krakow. Essentially, the real purpose of my somewhat reluctant trip to Poland was a reunion with my two brothers, Nathan of New York and Bernard of California. We are three lucky sur- vivors because in the annals of the Holocaust, there are very few "three siblings in one family" who survived. There were literally hundreds of thousands of families totally obliterat- ed from the face of the Earth. There is not even one family member left to memorialize them. Consequently, no one will know that they ever existed We went to Auschwitz, where ,1‘ my father, Jacob, 50, was killed in August of 1944. We also went to a very little-known German extermina- tion camp called Belzec, in a remote part of eastern Poland on the Ukrainian border. There, in addition to others, most of the Krakow Jewry was destroyed, including our mother Rochme Gittel, 45, and sister, Miriam, 15, killed in October of 1942. Belzec, unlike other camps, didn't contain any facilities. The human cargo was forced to leave the cattle cars directly to the gas chambers. Being fluent in Polish, we rented a car and drove more than 1,200 miles through a good portion of southern and eastern Poland. We passed through some familiar-sounding shtetls, whose names evoked childhoo( memories. We were pleasantly surprised by the courtesy extended to us by the Polish people, especially the young ones, devoid of anti-Semitic remarks. Peopl were friendly and interested to know what our life was like in America. My brother Bernard is one of the Youngest survivors of Auschwitz. He spent the last 10 summers in Poland, lecturing about the Holocaust at the Jagielonian University in Krakow, one of the oldest in Europe. He is also speaking at public schools with some success. The students show a great deal of interest, but the authorities don't always cooperate. Occasionally, he guides some tour groups through Auschwitz. One of the most interest- ing ones happened just a few weeks ago: he guided 50 students from Jedwabne. It made a great impact on them. No doubt, Poland is undergoing a resurgence in interest in Jewish sub- jects. The new generation, particularl is thirsting for that knowledge. However, I continually monitor the Polish media, both here and abroad, and find that this interest is not uni- versal. Hopefully, this, too, will change. ❑ A Bar Mitzvah Promise In Israel ELISSA BROWN Special Commentary Jerusalem 'm not a martyr, an overly religious person or even brave for that matter. So why did I choose to go to Israel during July as the Palestinian intifada (uprising) continued to esca- late daily? Because I know what I'm good at and that is keeping a promise. Before my son was ever born, more than 13 years ago, my husband, Robert, and I promised each other that we would go to Israel for our first child's bar or bat mitzvah. In our hearts and minds, we always knew this trip would one day become a reality for us. So here it was, the summer of 2001 and a trip to Israel was in the works. Did I ever consider not going? Of course. The pressure from family and friends, not to mention the warnings from the State Department, didn't help. After many sleepless nights and vows not to watch any more CNN (Cable News Network), I proceeded to pack for our trip. The usual anxiety of going on a long trip corn- I BAR MITZVAH on page 30 Elissa Brown is a West Bloomfield resident. She and her hus- band, Robert, have two children. They are affiliated with Adat Shalom Synagogue. 8/17 2001 28 The Brown family at Masada. Robert, Elissa, Michael, 11, and Benjamin, 13, and the Israeli rabbi who was helping with the bar mitzvah service.