ROLEX
Holocaust survivor Asher Aud dances with the Israeli flag at the Izaak
Synagogue in the Old City of Krakow.
rom Despair To Joy
FIDF mission to Poland and Israel
runs the gamut of emotions.
Harry Kirsbaum
Contributing Writer
oining a throng of 50 IDF
soldiers and 50 Israel sup-
porters from the U.S. and
Panama, Beth Wolpin Gans marched
into Birkenau carrying Israeli flags.
As part of a
Friends of the Israel
Defense Forces
"From Holocaust
to Independence"
mission on April
28-May 9, the group
traveled from the
depths of Jewish
Beth Gans
despair in the Nazi
death camps in
Poland to the State of Israel, where
they celebrated Israel's Memorial and
Independence Days.
At Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gans and
the others watched as Asher Aud, an
Auschwitz survivor who now lives in
Jerusalem, told his survivor story to
the group while standing in the bar-
racks where he once lived.
"He was dancing the hora, and these
soldiers put him on their shoulders"
said Gans, who lives in Franklin.
She would have called this a high-
light of the trip, but nothing about
Poland was a highlight, and she said
she would never return.
"Once you see it, that's it. It was very
upsetting and sad" she said, "especially
traveling with Asher who told these
stories that were just horrific. You see
it on television, or go to museums, but
when you're standing there and you're
looking at an area where they were so
horribly treated ..."
This was her fourth mission to
Israel, but it was the most emotional,
she said.
"We took an army plane from
Krakow to Tel Aviv, and we landed
in a certain area on the tarmac in
Israel" said Gans, a Temple Israel
member and mother of two grown
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children. "How amazing it was to
come from Poland, where the Jews
were destroyed, and to land in Israel
with singing and dancing right on the
tarmac.
"It was great to be with the Israeli
soldiers, and for them to see what
they're fighting for, and what hap-
pened" she said, adding that among
the Israelis on the mission was the
mother of a fallen soldier. "They bring
them because they want them to
see — this is why we have to fight to
keep the State of Israel because of the
people who died for us"
FDIF national chairperson, Nily
Falic, called the trip a life-changing
journey.
"A journey through the depths of
despair and the chilling devastation of
the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps,
to the heart of Jerusalem, where Jews
from around the world celebrated
proudly together 66 years of indepen-
dence in our Jewish state. Throughout
this journey, the FDIF delegation had
the honor of being accompanied by
brave IDF soldiers and commanders,
without whom we would never have
the state to call home"
While in Israel, the group visited
other Israeli soldiers and command-
ers on IDF bases across the country,
observed live fire military exer-
cises and met with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of
Defense Moshe Ya'alon.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Yitzhak Gershon,
FDIF national director and chief
executive officer, said commemorating
Israel's Memorial Day and celebrating
its independence pays tribute to the
young men and women of the IDF, and
thanks them for protecting the Jewish
homeland.
"The FDIF delegation sends a clear
message to the world, that we know
the past, we appreciate the present,
and we will stand with the State of
Israel and its brave soldiers now and
forever" he said.
❑