Coming Full Circle

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to hop on here and update everyone about what I’ve been up to. I have a lot to go over, but I’ll try to be brief! Following my return from Germany I hit the ground running to get everything caught up at work. I have continued my work with the Alpha Omega dental program and we have helped a total of 19 low-income Holocaust Survivors access free dental services. Some survivors haven’t been to a dentist in decades, and others simply can’t afford to pay for the expensive crowns, dentures, and bridgework that is required when you reach a certain age. Overall this program has been successful in helping these Survivors gain access to dental services, and regain function and eliminate their pain.

Following my trip and lecture in Germany I was invited to work on a PhD at the University of Giessen! I can work on the bulk of the dissertation here in the U.S. while I’m working at JFS. I am very excited to start this next phase of my life. I am currently working on narrowing down my topic, but I do know it will be based in some way on Metro-Detroit Survivor testimony and remembrance. Along with this I have one more big announcement. I have agreed to stay on at JFS for a second year as the AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer for Holocaust Survivor Services. I officially started my 2^nd term of service at the beginning of September and I am already working on new projects.

Following my return from Germany I presented a lecture on the Nazi Death Camps, which I had just visited and was able to include information I learned while visiting these sites. I also held a training on the fate of the Hungarian Jews, and next week I will hold the final booster, which will focus on the hidden children and rescuers during the Holocaust.    

In the next year I am working on several exciting projects. In addition to continuing the dental program I am working on creating programs modeled off of the dental program that will provide glasses and hearing aids for low-income Survivors. These are the next two most expensive items for low-income Survivors and they are very expensive for JFS to cover with emergency financial assistance. In addition to this I am also working on a 6 hour training on genocide that I have been asked to present for social workers, home care givers, etc. in the community. Finally, within the next week I am hoping to mail out the second ever Holocaust Survivor Newsletter. As soon as some final tweaks are made it will be on its way to almost 600 people, making it our largest newsletter distribution/ outreach effort to date.

At the end of my first year as VISTA I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Philadelphia to meet with staff from AJFCA, and JFCS Philly. We had a great meeting that allowed us to talk about challenges we face at our organizations, innovative ways each organization has found to reach out to the community, and we were able to have a chance to realize that some problems are universal and we may be able to work together to find a comprehensive solution. Following this meeting I had a chance to meet with some of the new VISTAs serving this specific project around the U.S. It was great to see a new batch of VISTAs ready to get to work to help some of the most vulnerable in our country. I look forward to collaborating with them on future projects, and seeing what unique perspectives they bring to the table.

I will try to be better about posting more regularly now that I’m not trying to play catch up every couple of weeks! Until next time…

Year 2 VISTAs with AJFCA staff

The End of the Road: Finding Chełmno

On the 14^th I made my final stop on my journey. After a short drive from Warsaw, I arrived in a sleepy Polish town, Chełmno. I decided to first go to the forest where there are many memorials to those murdered here. The forest was used as the site of mass graves. When victims were loaded into vans with rerouted exhaust, they were driven a few kilometers into the woods. By the time the van stopped everyone inside had asphyxiated and they were dumped into mass graves. Over the years there has been an ever increasing amount of memorialization at this site as well as a great deal of archeological surveys to discover the exact location of the graves, and previous buildings. When I pulled up I could see the massive memorial and some smaller memorials close to the road. One memorial was for the murdered Poles of the area and another much larger one for all of the victims. The memorial, like at the other camps, is massive. As I took pictures of it I realized what was happening in the carvings on the memorial. It was (in my opinion) depicting people going to their deaths, suffering, and was filled with sorrow. What has struck me the most is that each death camp has a completely unique style, aesthetic, or whatever you’d like to call it. Each seems fitting based on what happened here. See these memorials here:

After looking at these memorials I followed the trail down and found more memorials as well as signs showing what buildings used to be located in the forest. At one point along the concrete path there was a small wooden bridge going over part of the concrete path. After some examination I found the sign that explains that where the yellow lines are painted (which is the area the bridge goes over) is the site of  a mass grave 60 meters or so long. After following the trail a little farther I came around a corner to see a huge area cut out of the trees. This area has stone markers to show you where mass graves are located, though a sign says that further research has indicated that the graves are even larger than what is marked. It is mind boggling to come face to face with this place where so many were buried after being murdered. It was just one mass grave after another with small memorials and monuments and paths that you can walk down to see the whole area. There is also a kind of memorial wall which gives the name of the camp and the dates and then visiting groups have attached plaques to the wall to memorialize villages that were lost to Chełmno, and sometimes individuals. Here are some pictures:

After visiting the site of the mass graves I went back to the town to find the museum there. Sitting next to a large white church is a small marker that denotes this as the location of Chełmno Extermination Camp. The church is where Jews were kept overnight when they arrived in the town, and then they were walked over to the palace next door, brought trough the basement, and made their way up ramps into the back of the gas vans. The Nazis have long since destroyed the palace in an attempt to hide the truth of their actions, but archeologists have unearthed the foundation of the building and have found pieces left behind that prove what happened here. I met an amazing woman at the museum who showed me around and gave me additional background information. She was also able to talk to me about the formation of the museum, the challenges they face in preserving the site, how they managed to find all of the materials they did for their small exhibit. It was great getting to hear all of the inside information. She took me to what used to be a grainary where they kept Jews to make shoes, repair items, etc. and they have turned this building into a small museum with a very big collection of items they have found in several garbage piles the archeologists located. The sheer volume is staggering. Here are some pictures from inside the museum exhibition:

Following the museum I spoke with the employee some more and she showed me their library collection they have been working on and pointed out a couple of books that they feel are the best on the camp. I always love a good book recommendation, but to get one from the woman who actually manages the entire memorial and museum was awesome. I know what books I’ll be buying ASAP! 

Following the camp I drove on to Berlin for the night. In the morning up to see more of the city and a little shopping. Then on the road to Frankfurt where I’ve been for about 2 days. Today I catch the long flight home and will sit in Newark waiting for my connecting flight, missing Germany, and Poland, the wonderful people, the moving history, and the power it has to rejuvenate me in my work.

A Day at Auschwitz

Yesterday I got up and had some breakfast and prepared myself for a day at Auschwitz, though how anyone can be fully prepared I'm unsure. I was curious if this time would be different since I had been here 4 years before. For Auschwitz I you have to be escorted through the camp by a guide, so I joined in a group of about 10-12 other "individual" visitors and was very impressed with our guide. She was not only knowledgeable, but you could tell she truly understood the weight of her task, and the importance of what she was showing us.

One of my favorite things she said was right at the beginning, she said "This is not a tour, or a guided museum, this is truly a pilgrimage." This not only set the tone for the rest of her tour of the first camp, but it also gave me a lot to think about. Many people have asked me why I would come back to Auschwitz since I was just here, what was the value in it? I think this is the answer. In some ways I came to learn, but in another way it truly is a pilgrimage. With what I study, and what I do for a living, how could I not come and pay my respects and remind myself why I do the work I do?

Following the tour of Auschwitz I, we had a break and needed to meet the guide at a bus at 12:30. After a quick bite to eat for lunch I went to the bus only to find out they had left early, thinking they had everyone! So it wasn't a problem, the hotel I'm staying at was across the street, so I grabbed the car and drove to Auschwitz II and gave myself the tour. Auschwitz II is 17x the size of Auschwitz one, it is so big that words cannot adequately describe it.  It looks like there is quite a bit of preservation work currently underway, which is good that they are doing it, but some buildings previously available were now closed.

After several hours in Auschwitz II it was time to say goodbye to, as the guide said, "the world's largest graveyard." I went back to the hotel and relaxed, and then out to dinner. After dinner I looked up the Auschwitz Jewish Center and realized it was only about 2 minutes away if I walked. This is the center that has generously offered to be the proxy for all of the Polish survivors that would like to apply for the Polish Pension, which previously you couldn't get if you lived outside of Poland. It is cook, but a little surreal, to stand outside of this building that has a direct connection with the work I'm currently doing at JFS.

Today I will pack up and head towards Lublin. I'll stop at Krakow, Plaszow, Belzec, and Majdanek and then spend the night at a hotel in Lublin.