We landed in Berlin, Germany, on a sunny Monday morning.  I was not expecting Germany to be so beautiful.  Touring Berlin was interesting and I am glad I was given the opportunity to see some of the memorials around the city.  One of most moving places was a train track where the Germans loaded Jews for transport. The date, number of people, and the destination were written along the edges of the tracks. The numbers started off small, then swelled into the thousands as the dates got later, then dropped down to as low as 18 towards the end of the war.  Even when the Nazis were losing the war they still allocated vital resources to transport the few Jews left in Berlin.  I learned this cruel lesson along with the students. It set the tone for the rest of the trip as we headed to Poland. 

The experience of returning to Majdanek and Auschwitz was made even more powerful with a survivor of those horrific places.  Mrs. Rachel Roth began her story of miraculous survival as a young girl in the Warsaw ghetto.  I now have a new appreciation for the stories of survival, and the courage of those who fought back in the uprising.  Mrs. Roth's miraculous survival stories continued at Majdanek.  On a sunny day, without a cloud in the sky, the group sat looking out at the camp listening to her story.  The people she met fascinated me. She spoke of a Greek woman in the camp that didn't speak Hebrew or any of the other languages Mrs. Roth spoke, but when she mentioned Shabbat, they both understood each other instantly. The Jewish connection transcends all barriers.

Mrs. Roth's main message during her speeches to the group was that she was speaking for all the people that couldn't.  It is hard to believe that the next generation probably won't meet a Holocaust survivor.  We will become their voice. Going to Poland reaffirmed that and I tried to appreciate each and every moment. 

The highlight of this trip, as it was on my trip over ten years ago, was Israel.  Hours after leaving the gates of Auschwitz we landed at Ben Gurion airport.  We only spent two days there but they were amazing.  The air in Israel is beautiful, and that first morning at the Kotel was perfect.  After such an intense few days of absorbing the depressing history of the Jews of eastern Europe it felt like a sigh of relief to be around Jews in our homeland. The best feeling ever.