"The students were very articulate about their experiences and they asked lots of great questions," said Mrs. Fine.  "There was much sharing about the sense of 'being home' in Israel, the sense of pride in being Jewish, the desire to be more committed to their Judaism and to Israel and lots of words about feeling grateful for being here.   

We spoke a lot about the contradictions and juxtapositions of the trip and how to manage feelings of both sadness and joy."

"I've grown up to 'never forget and always remember.'  I couldn't grasp what that meant until I stood looking at scratch marks on the walls.  I don't know how people could be so cruel," said Delaney Becker, a senior at Plano West Senior High and the third of Max's grandchildren to travel the MOL by his side. In 2012, Max's son Phil also marched with his father.  "My Zayde is an inspiration. I'm proud to be a part of my family and to pass on his legacy."

  "I hadn't been back in 60 years before my first trip with Yavneh.  I've now gone eight times and every trip is different," said Max who was 10-years-old when the war broke out, and who lost his parents and brother during the war.  At 13 he was sent to Majdanek, to Budzyn, Mielec, Wieliczka and Flossenburg before being liberated, by a Jewish soldier, while on a death march to Dachau. Later serving in the U.S. Army, in the Korean War, he ultimately made Dallas his home. "These students expressed themselves with so much feeling and incredible impact."

Wrapped warm in layers, this was the first March in memory that saw significant snow and low  temperatures.  In Cracow, the group visited Plaschow and Zgody Square where Rabbi Tannenbaum, led a tour of a cemetery behind the Ramah's Shul wherein his own ancestors are buried.  "There's something uplifting, even in a cemetery, about standing at the gravesite of an often quoted and famous Rabbi," said Mrs. Fine.  

The group went to Treblinka, where an estimated 800,000 Jews were killed, to Majdanek, where Max recounted his time there, and to Tykotchin, where more than 1400 were taken over a three-day period and killed in its forest.  Yavneh seniors Elie Schramm and Rachel Siegel conducted a class, at the restored Yeshiva in Lublin, in honor of Rabbi Meir Shapiro who founded the "one page per day," or "daf yomi" system of Talmudic study. 

While at the entrance to the former Warsaw Ghetto, timing was everything.  The Yavneh group witnessed what few could imagine as the Chiefs of the Israel and Polish armed forces laid a Star of David wreath, at the Rappaport Monument.  "It was almost surreal," said Mrs. Fine.  "To stand where 70 years ago the Warsaw Ghetto uprising started - and to witness this ceremony, with all of its implications, was incredibly moving."

"As a 14-year-old I never could have imagined this moment.  This respect, and a museum to honor the history of the Jews of Poland, would have been totally unthinkable," said Max who showed the group the entrances to the sewers where, as a child, he would sneak out for food.  "I was interviewed by a filmmaker about dogs that are being trained by the Israelis to help the blind.  What a difference from the dogs that the Nazis trained to kill.   

It's incredible."

The group marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau, with survivors at the head, often linking arms.  Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and a survivor himself, addressed the participants, just yards from the crematoria of Birkenau, while our own Max led 12,000 marchers in the chanting of the Kaddish prayer for those no longer living, calling the moment "like rising to heaven with a glorification to Hashem." 

"Before this trip I had no real way to connect but I absolutely do now," said Stephanie Medina whose trip included her first-ever flight.  "I 'adopted' Max and others whose faith I saw I heard their stories.  These survivors won't always be with us and for those who died - their stories died with them.  We must always defend them."

In time for Yom Ha'Zikaron (Israel's Memorial Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day), the group arrived in Israel to climb Masada and visit the Ein Gedi nature preserve.  In a moving experience, the group met with the parents of Michael Levine, z"l, a lone soldier from the USA, who was killed in 2006, Lebanon during battle.

Rachel Goodman and Kelly Herson, co-Presidents of Yavneh's Students Against Terrorism and co-Chairs of the 2013 Points for Peace basketball tournament, were cheered as they presented $48,000, to ZAKA, this year's P4P beneficiary - the donation to support ZAKA's rescue and recovery efforts, throughout Israel.

On Shabbat morning, in Jerusalem,

the group attend prayer services, took walking tours and they reconnected with many Yavneh alumni who are studying in Israel or serving in the Israel Defense Forces.   

A second "march," a march of the living, found the students making their way from Safra Square, in downtown Jerusalem, to the Kotel where Rabbi Tannenbaum led thousands in the Sh'ma.  

  "This trip was life-changing.  As I walked out of the camps, the forests, and the gas chambers, I realized I was doing something those who died couldn't," said Yosef Presburger.  "I saw Max walk out with such pride and strength - and the dignity.  As a People, we must always walk with that dignity."