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A local teen discovers who she is Jewishly in Poland and Israel.

My first day in Poland was a
pleasant
surprise. I had expected
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this country to be dark, gloomy
and desolate. Instead, I found
his summer allowed
the cities of Krakow and
me to mature and
Warsaw to be full of life and
grow emotionally in
very colorful. Of course, there
a way I never
are very few Jews living in
dreamed possible. I was offered
Poland today.
the chance of a lifetime, to trav-
When visiting the Nazi con-
el with my contemporaries to
centration camps in Poland, a
Poland, the Czech Republic and
much gloomier atmosphere pre-
Israel. I chose to go on B'nai
vailed. The weather was always
B'rith's Eastern Europe-Israel
overcast and a darkness of mood
Pilgrimage. The things I saw
was a constant. It was very dis-
and experienced will change my
turbing to me that there was so
life forever.
little indication that many of
I truly feel this is a journey
the camps had even existed, in
every Jew, young and old,
view of the fact that millions of
should experience. I was thrilled
lives had perished at these
with the prospect of such inter-
dreadful places.
esting travel, yet terrified of the
Specifically, both Sobibor and
Bloomfield
Francisco
and
Jessica
Robins
of
West
Liana Atlas of San
horrors I might see and the
Treblinka had the outward
Birkenau.
wire
fence
at
Auschwitz
stand
by
the
barbed
anger I might encounter in
appearance of being parks.
Israel. I was unsure how I would
Flowers and trees were flourish-
react to seeing concentration camps firsthand, knowing how difficult a time
ing, fertilized by the ashes of our ancestors. Locals both mountain biked and
I have at home visiting Holocaust museums, seeing movies and reading
hiked through these acres.
books about the atrocities.
Conversely, Majdanek was a concentration camp left in its entirety. It was
A sense of duty and the excitement of adventure helped me to overcome
there that I first felt the enormous gravity of the Holocaust.
my fears. Off I flew to New York to meet my B'nai B'rith travel group, and
We actually walked through gas chambers. We saw the showers where the
then together we went to Poland.
innocent were unceremoniously stripped naked and then led through one of
Our group was small, but closely knit. I was the only person from
two doors, one to survival and the other to death. We saw the scratch marks
Michigan; the rest of my group came from all over the United States.
on the walls of the gas chamber and could only imagine the horror and
Lasting friendships began to develop immediately.
helplessness that was felt. We saw the actual holes in the ceiling from which

JESSICA ROBINS

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