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June 2, 2006
Marching for memory
Remembering the past, building for the future.
JULIANA DALLEY
Not one person born after 1945, anywhere in the world, can ever
hope to understand what it was like to live through one of the most
horrific periods in human history. But, as young adults living in
the wake of the Holocaust and in the midst of genocide, it is our
obligation to try.
The March of the Living is a two-week program in which about 8,000
students from all over the world participate in an educational and
spiritual experience designed to promote understanding and knowledge
of the Holocaust, as the number of survivors among us wanes. During
our first week, spent in Poland, we witnessed the destruction that
befell our culture and we bore witness to the transgressions against
humanity that were committed there.
As participants of the march, we viewed the sites where Jews once
thrived, to see and learn about places where so many innocent victims
of hatred were murdered. Most harrowing were our visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Belzec, Majdanek and Treblinka, the death camps. Though the week
in Poland was peppered with visits to old centres of Jewish culture
– the Krakow Jewish Quarter, the many synagogues, the Lublin
Yeshivah – images of the camps will remain embedded in my memory
forever. On Yom Hashoah, the march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where
8,000 of us walked in complete silence was one of the most memorable
hours of my life.
Every moment of every day was amazing. Talking with David Shentow,
an Auschwitz survivor who travelled with us, was always a riveting
experience. Many times, while we were on the bus travelling from
one place to another, we would hear the sound of the microphone
being turned on and he would say, "I'd like to tell you a story."
The bus would fall silent and, captivated, we would listen.
These "Davidisms" will no doubt remain with us for the
rest of our lives. He recounted some very painful memories –
of saying goodbye to his mother before being deported, of witnessing
a close friend murdered on the first day in the camp, of a double
ration of bread that he is sure kept him alive until his liberation
two weeks later. As we waited at Auschwitz for the march to begin,
I went up to him and asked him how he was. He answered that he was
OK, but that it was difficult to be back. "You see that building?"
he said, and pointed. "That was my bunker."
This all ties in with what I and many others felt was the most important
goal of the march: the transfer of responsibility. It was a metaphoric
passing of the torch from the older generation to the youth. As
I stood at the summit of Majdanek, I glanced over to see Shentow
gazing out over the acres and acres of land, quiet and thoughtful.
It was at that moment I fully realized it was my job to keep his
legacy alive. It was my job to absorb the smell of the bunkers –
some of them still in their original state – to touch the cement
walls of the gas chambers and the bricks of the crematoria, to feel
the sharp prick of the barbed wire.
Why is it important to remember this legacy? The simplest answer
is to prevent it from happening again. But, of course, anyone with
a memory and a bit of knowledge of the outside world knows this
has not helped. From the day the last Nazi fled the camps, the hope
that the Holocaust would remain the last and ultimate testament
of evil has been proven false. Since then, we have seen country
after country ravaged by nothing other than pure hatred: Cambodia,
Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sudan.
The real reason to remember the Holocaust is to witness humanity
at its lowest, so as to battle the rampant ignorance that leads
to in-difference, which itself is what allowed an atrocity of this
magnitude to occur. And it is indifference still that permits murderers
to slaughter hundreds of people a day and to massacre villagers
right under the eyes of an apathetic world.
After seeing the destruction of Poland, we travelled to Israel to
spend a week in our beautiful homeland. There, one of the highlights
of the week was Yom Ha'atzmaut and, to celebrate, all 8,000 of us
marched from Jerusalem Square to the Old City and on to the Kotel.
The juxtaposition was a study in contrasts: the bleakness of our
history in Poland and the light of our future in Israel. The evil
embodied by the camps, or what was left of them; the holiness that
is Israel. The point of our stay was simply to remind us that 3,000
years of our history lies there – and if it is not there that
our future lies, we simply have no future at all.
For me and the thousands of other marchers, the March of the Living
was a defining and life-altering experience. There was nothing that
could have truly prepared me for the march; no brochure can hope
to describe this experience. Though the experience was different
for so many people, I think it can be said that for all, the trip
was harrowing yet inspiring, but above all, personal. I witnessed
my past in Poland and caught a glimpse of my future in Israel and,
in doing so, experienced the most amazing two weeks of my life.
I returned home to many questions, the first and foremost being,
"How was your trip?"
I found that I had to pause before answering. It occurred to me
then that this experience was not a trip. A "trip" implies
something cyclical – leaving, having a good time and returning.
March of the Living was not a trip, but a journey – to a destination
that opened my understanding of the human family and was the gateway
to a life of ambassadorship to the memory of the Holocaust.
March of the Living is a program sponsored and administered by the
Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. You can join participants
on Tuesday, June 6, at 8 p.m., in the Wosk Auditorium at the Vancouver
JCC. The teens will share their experiences, photographs and stories.
The evening is free of charge and everyone is welcome, especially
those in grades 8, 9, and 10 who will be eligible for the March
of the Living trip in 2008. The evening is jointly sponsored by
the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Federation and
the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
Juliana Dalley was a participant in this year's March
of the Living.
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