By Nicole Kessler
Our trip to Europe was comprised of many exciting, saddening and eye-opening experiences. Personally, I had numerous defining moments where I was able to connect the dots and digest everything I have learned from childhood up until now. Everything was starting to make more sense. It’s one thing to learn about these horrific events that took place during the Holocaust through readings, listening to Holocaust survivors and films but it’s another thing to actually visit the places we have studied.
We started our journey in Poland, specifically Krakow. The last leg of our stay in Poland we visited the Jewish Quarter. One fact we learned was before the Holocaust Poland was home to the greatest number of European Jews- around 3 million to be exact. Currently today in 2018, there are around 200 registered Jews that live in Poland. That fact will be something I remember forever. We then went to Auschwitz- Birkenau and that was a surreal experience. The first thing you see as you enter the Nazi death camp is the infamous arch “Arbeit Macht Frei.” It was chilling walking through, knowing the number of innocent people who, as well, walked through that sign. Throughout our visit, I was going through the motions. I listened as our tour guide spoke to us, I absorbed what I was seeing and reading to the best of my abilities and I tried to be a fly on the wall. Just walking these grounds made my heart sink every second of the way. But, the one specific room that made my whole body freeze was the “hair room.” What seemed like miles and miles of braided hair, was contained behind glass for all to see. Pictures and video were strictly prohibited because hair is part of a human and it belonged to an individual who was murdered. The scary thing is is that the hair maybe belonged to 14,000 people. Comparing that to the 6 million Jews who were murdered- what we saw was nothing but it seemed like everything. During this experience, it was hard to fathom that this is where my ancestors perished. I could have been standing in the exact same spot my family stood in. I could have been in the same barrack as them. The reason I have taken such a strong attachment to learning about the Holocaust is for that reason. I’m here and I can spread awareness that this mind-boggling event in history happened.
As a group, we took a night train to Prague. On our second day in the Czech Republic, we went to Terezin. What shocked me the most was the concrete prison cells. It was 85 degrees outside, not including heat index, and these cells were ice cold. It felt like 50 degrees. The whole time, I couldn't help thinking about how these prisoners and the Jewish people lived in these treacherous conditions. Prague had a winter. These people wore barely any clothing while it snowed outside. Bare boned with not enough fat to keep them a tiny bit warm. Then our tour guide took us to the showers. The Nazis and Hitler had plans of building gas chambers at Terezin but never got around to it. These showers were used for cleaning purposes. We then went into three rooms. The first room was where the Jewish people and prisoners would take their clothes off and put them in this interesting looking metal “ leaner." At this point diseases and germs manifested on their clothing. The clothing was not washed with any bacteria-killing ingredients so the diseases never left the clothes. I have to double check but men went first then woman then the Jewish people. They took ice cold showers. Then the people were given clothes and it wasn't the clothes they had on their backs originally. It was someone else's clothes and that's how diseases spread. The other way the Jewish people would die was from the cold air. When they were done showering their clothes would be sopping wet. Either they would die because their bodies could not protect them or their clothes would freeze to their skin and burn them. We then went into torture cells. These were tiny rooms that had no windows. The Jews would die from lack of oxygen. The Germans loved drinking so when they were done, we were told that they would pick a random cell and beat up that Jewish person to the point that they would be on the brink of death. We then walked through this underground tunnel it was really long and approached a place where the Jewish people were shot to death. On the other side of the wall was where the Nazis lived. Directly on the other side was a swimming pool for the Germans to have a good time in. What’s mentioned above is what really stood out to me.
The last stop on our trip was Germany. We spent our time at Nuremberg and Berlin. While in Berlin, we went to The Holocaust Memorial - Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe near the Brandenburg Gate and the Underground Museum. The concrete blocks got taller, the walkway got narrower and the blocks got thicker as you got walked deeper. All of a sudden there was this overwhelming feeling. I felt trapped even though I wasn't. The blocks represent the millions who were killed. Then you walked into the Underground Museum. I have been to Holocaust Memorials in Israel, Florida, Washington DC, New York and now Europe and I thought this specific memorial was uniquely done. Just the fact that we were in the country where it all started is still hard to wrap my brain around. It was creative, impactful, small but effective. The memorial first starts off with a detailed timeline breaking down different events per year and month. This timeline really helped me visually paint a picture in my head. The next room featured different family stories from different all countries involved. The rooms got progressively darker and somber. There was a room with lightbox quotes from real postcards on the floor, which was very emotional. The final room was pitch black with benches in the center. On all the walls a name was projected with the person's date of birth and date of death. A speaker would then tell about this specific person.
