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Jewish Community News
News: September 2006
My once-in-a-lifetime experience
By Jake Alexander
Jake was one of the 18 teens from the South Bay who traveled to Poland and Israel on the March of the Living.
On April 22, I embarked on what would be the most incredible, inspiring, emotional trip I have ever been on in my life, the March of the Living. Our group of South Bay teenagers started our profound terrible journey through Poland in the early morning darkness.
Plaszow came first—a littered, empty field, with retail shops built
around it, anti-Semitic slogans graffitied on the rocks. A man walked
his dog through the field, as if it were just a park.
Next, Auschwitz—cold, tall brick buildings, barbed wire fence. “Arbeit
Macht Frei,” “work makes you free” hung above the gate,
a daunting reminder of those who walked under it, never to come out again.
Piles of hair and shoes, remnants of people who didn’t have tombstones,
who were lost in the abyss never to be found again.
After Auschwitz we marched. Along with 8,000 others, we marched to Birkenau.
Train tracks, barracks, watchtowers, ditches, destroyed gas chambers and
crematoria. A huge plot of land dedicated to one purpose—the killing
of an entire people.
The next day, Majdanek. Cold, concrete walls. Blue zyklon B stains. Scratches
of desperate people, trying to get out. The entire tour, a whole group
breaking down, but coming together in support for one another. On that
day there was a loss of innocence, a realization that the world is not
pure, that people are not all good, that there is an unspeakable evil
that has existed and still exists today.
Then, Treblinka. A deep, sorrowful mou-rning for our fellow brother Isaac
who lost his entire family there. We placed rocks on the stone that had
printed on it “Bialystok,” Isaac’s hometown where he
grew up and where he and his family were taken away. I stood there wondering
how I would feel if I were to lose my entire family in the blink of an
eye, and how I would be able to live on.
The week in Poland was a harsh and terrible experience, but strangely,
it was fulfilling. I never really understood the Holocaust until I came
to see the ashes piled high at Majdanek, the barbed wire fences of Auschwitz,
and the train tracks leading into Birkenau. If I could describe everything
I felt that week I would, but it’s just not possible. All I can
say is that you must go, and you must remember, otherwise all those who
perished would have died for nothing.
The following week, we emerged from the terrible darkness into the light
of Eretz Yisrael. Some members of the group immersed themselves in the
waters of the Kinneret, to be awoken by the cold, cleansed of the week
before. We rejoiced that we were in Israel. We danced in the cool spring
night on a boat. In the days that followed we traveled to S’fat,
home of Jewish mysticism, Cesaria, an old Roman port town, and the Dead
Sea where we floated in the salty waters. We climbed Massada, danced on
Ben Yehuda street, breathed in the Old City, and tasted falafel. Israel
gave us what we needed—comfort, security, and above all else, a
place to call home.
The moment that was most significant for me was when I first came in contact
with the Western Wall. I stood there and I prayed, and I kissed the wall;
and with that kiss was the love of a proud Jewish man who was finally
in the country that God had promised to his people for so long. A magnificent
feeling flowed through my body, and I know that this feeling has remained
within me and I will carry it on through the rest of my life.
So what now? What kind of impact has the March left on me? Yes, the March
was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it is really what you
make out of it after it is done that counts. In college I plan on joining
Hillel, as well as the Save Darfur group on campus. I also have promised
to dedicate more time on campus to political activism against injustices
happening all over the world. My eyes have been opened to all the injustices
that still exist today. It is up to my generation to prevent atrocities
like the Holocaust from ever happening again. Please think about what’s
happening around us right now and take action! There are evil people out
there, and the world needs people like us to make sure they never succeed
in their horrible endeavors. Thank you.
This trip was funded in part by the Jewish Fed-
eration of Silicon Valley.
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