Day 5

Today we visited the Lodz ghetto and the train tracks lined with empty box cars which were once used to transport Jews from their ghettos to concentration camps. I did not know what to expect. I took a deep breath as I first stepped foot into the empty wooden box car. I looked around and took in its emptiness and silence. Suddenly, the box car was no longer empty. As I closed my eyes for a moment, I envisioned one hundred Jewish men, women and young children crammed into this tiny prison. I heard screams and cries from hungry children, begging their mothers for food and water. I no longer shivered though it was thirty degrees outside - I felt the disgusting heat from the bodies crammed into that car like animals on that hot August day. It is impossible to comprehend anyone could survive for days in the box cars. They were not given food or water, yet they were forced to stand for days on end. Even though they were standing shoulder to shoulder it was impossible to tell if the person next to them we're still breathing. 

Yael Spirer

Today Max Glauben explained after days of being crammed in the claustrophobic spaced the humidity caused water droplets to form on the ceiling of the cart. That was how some managed to survive. They drank the mere droplets of water from the ceiling.

Warsaw was destroyed by the war. During the restoration of the city the building grids were changed. In the area where the warsaw ghetto was modern Warsaw holds very little resemblance. We walked the area with Max Glauben, he would gesture in all directions depicting his time in the ghetto. We stood on the plot of land that had held to Mila 18. It was used as the headquarters for the rebels of the Warsaw ghetto. Max explained how the Germans used grenades to smoke the rebels out of the building, killing them on sight and proceeding to burn the building. In its place is a small hill with a small stone memorial on top. The area is surrounded by modern Warsaw, hearing the sounds of the city and seeing the new modern buildings added an extra sense of loss to Max's story. A loss of physical history, which was a stark contrast to when we visited Auschwitz. There, the barracks were still standing, we could see the scratches in the walls of the gas chambers. A standing testimony to the Holocaust that will not allow the world to forget what happened there. Yet in Warsaw, time has changed the landscape. With only a few small memorials we are left with the sense that as time goes on people might forget what happened here. That is worrisome. But that worry is not entirely rational. 

Max told us of some of his smuggling adventures. We stood next to the small remnant of the ghetto wall where Max explained how he would scale the wall and go in search of food to bring back to the ghetto. Filling his pockets with whatever he could find, sneaking his way back to the ghetto. Max illustrated how during one of his return trips over the wall a bullet glanced off the wall near him. He also illustrated a time when he was caught by the Germans and had to bribe his way back to the ghetto. Though the landscape may have changed the stories of the ghetto and it's survivors will live on through time. They will not be forgotten.

We are taught to live with with honor, courage, and bravery. We learn the true meaning of these words from survivors like Max. 

Bradley Riche