Photos by Hannah Rappoport
Wednesday began with a flurry of packing and stocking up on sustenance as we prepared to depart from our gorgeous home for the trip of a lifetime. Back on our temporary home for the trip — the bus — we received a quick history lesson on the fascinating history of the Jewish people of Warsaw, pausing to admire the fascinating architecture and culture in the city.
We ventured into the cold rain and had the opportunity to view ancient local structures including the sole surviving Shul of Warsaw from before the Holocaust and a surviving church which was actually located inside the Ghetto. We proceeded to the final resting place of thousands of our predecessors including the great Netziv, Chemdas Shlomo, and thousands of holy souls killed in the ghetto due solely to their ethnicity. We continued through the area where the Warsaw Ghetto was located, seeing the building where the SS Headquarters were housed, and stopping at the Umschlagplatz, the deportation site from where thousands of Jews were shipped to their deaths.
We then visited the Polin Museum of the History of Jewish People where we encountered the rich Jewish history of the area ranging as far back as the 10th Century, including exhibits depicting why the Jews came to Poland, how they were treated over the years, and the ultimate end of Jewish life in the area. This visit allowed us to contextualize all the places and structures we have been to and will visit on our trip.
After a few hours in our mobile home, we arrived in Lublin. Disregarding our sleep deprivation in favor of maximizing the time we have in this culturally rich city, we continued with our tour, visiting the world-renowned Yeshivas Chochmei Lublin from pre-war Europe. Proving that the Jewish people persevere despite the constant opposition we encounter, we recreated a photo of some of their students with our own Jewish students.
Not to end too early, we visited the Lublin cemetery, eternally housing an innumerable amount of Jews present in the area throughout history. Included in the great people whose grave-sites we visited are the Chozer of Lublin, Reb Meir Shapiro, and Rabbi Yerakos. Also fascinating to see was the oldest Tombstone in Poland, dating back to the 14th century.
We concluded the evening with our first hot dinner, journaling, and a Q&A session with Rabbi Segal regarding the Holocaust to preface our upcoming trip to Majdanek. Thank you to all who made this unbelievable experience a reality.
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