Monday, April 8 / Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day

On Monday morning, we visited Kaszimierz, the old Jewish Quarter of Cracow, where we discussed the vibrant Jewish community that existed there for hundreds of years. It was the center of strong Jewish learning and culture and the teens were able to visit the various synagogues that are in existence then and today. Because the Nazis set their headquarters in Kraco, it was not destroyed like Warsaw. We also followed the same route by foot that the Jews were confined to a Ghetto in the Podgorze district. We saw the exact site of where Jews lived and the place they gathered for transport to the Plaszow concentration camp a few miles away. We  heard about  the story of the pharmacy in the ghetto that was run by a non-Jewish man and how he  risked his own life to help smuggle food and necessary items to the people in the ghetto. He and his two assistants were responsible for saving hundreds of people with forged documents.

Monday afternoon was the actual March of the Living, with approximately 10,000 people from over 50 countries. It was a great moment of pride for us to walk together representing America and Canada with our BBYO banner held high - the same walk that so many walked unknowingly to their deaths. The walk began in Auschwitz and the concluding ceremony held in the Birkenau death camp was very sad, but, uplifting at the same time. t  We heard stories and  speeches from survivors and dignitaries (such as Benny Gantz, the Chief of General staff of The Israeli Defense Forces and the beautiful lighting of the six torches to represent the six million of our people who perished. But, truly the most memorable moments were when the thousands stood and sang Hatikvah together as one strong, loud voice and when I saw so many Jews marching arm in arm together, it made me proud of my Jewish heritage and reassured me that the Jewish people are still strong today.