Remembering the Holocaust

Yesterday, the team made our first visit to some of the Holocaust sites in Poland. The city of Lodz contained one of the largest Jewish ghettos of Poland; 230,000 Jews from Lodz and an additional 25,000 Jews and Romas (Gypsies) were brought in. The large majority of these people were sent on to the death camp in Auschwitz and other death camps in Poland and Germany. The the survivors in the Lodz Ghetto were liberated in January of 1945 by Soviet troops. Of the quarter million residents of the ghetto only about 800 people remained. Here is a link to a more detailed history of the Lodz Ghetto:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/lodz.html

We visited two important Holocaust sites. First, we went to the Jewish cemetery of Lodz. This is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, covering about 40 hectares. The cemetery is relatively new and is still in use by the Lodz Jewish community (which now only numbers about 200 people in a city of over 800,000 people). At the far end of the cemetery a very special area has been preserved and marked with several memorials donated from organizations from around the world. The area was the site of a mass grave of about 40,000 Jews that died from malnutrition, disease, murder, exhaustion, among other hardships from the awful life of the ghetto. For all of us it was a very somber visit. As we looked over the site I reflected on several similar sights I have experienced in my life...visiting the fields that were once mass graves of Jews at the death camp in Mathausen, Austria; visiting the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia; and even the mass graves of tsunami victims along the beaches of Sri Lanka. It is a humbling experience to witness these bits of human tragedy and sorrow. As we left the cemetery we were shown several graves that had been dug and were now starting to cave in and were overgrown with weeds and grasses. Our guide made a poignant statement that before Lodz was liberated the few Jews remaining in the ghetto were forced to dig their own graves.

We also visited Lodz Holocaust memorial; the old train station that has been renovated to stand as a memorial to the Holocaust victims and survivors. Several of the box cars that were used to transport people from Lodz to the death camps had been restored and sat on the track. Beyond the train was a squared cement pedestrian tunnel about 150 yards long. Just past the end of the train and the tracks you entered the dark tunnel which lit up along the way, showing the names of those who were transported from Lodz to death camps, as well and brief historical summaries. Near the end of the tunnel a few display cases were hung on the walls showing personal effects such as buttons, scissors, glasses, etc. The tunnel then ended, opening up into a square room with the names of the cities throughout Europe where the residents of the Lodz Ghetto came from inscribed on the cement wall. On the left wall was a locked iron gate that looked to the outside with the Star of David on it. From the center of the room a massive open chimney stood, representing the crematoriums used at the death camps. One of the most interesting things I found at this memorial is that the only way out was the way you entered, walking back through the long tunnel lined with names of the dead and history, suggesting that we must not forget what happened.