Page 4 The Jewish Floridian of Tampa/Friday, October 16, 1987
We Are The Future9
Flashback To Betar Summer
Program To Poland And Israel
.
By AMOS DO RON
A group of 25 youngsters, 16
of them are from Jacksonville,
have just returned from an un-
forgettable adventure: "From
Tragedy to Triumph," the
Jacksonville Jewish Federa-
tion Teen Experience in
Poland and Israel. The six
week program was conducted
in conjunction with the Betar
Youth Organization, a Zionist
youth movement founded by
Zev Jabotinsky in 1923.
By the time the group of
Betar from Florida landed
back in the U.S.A., it had
travelled over 15,000 miles.
From the seemingly endless
hay fields of Poland and the
drab gray dreariness of War-
saw to Jerusalem's sparkling
brilliance, the vistas that
presented themselves through
a succession of tour bus win-
dows could not have been more
varied.
After a long journey to War-
saw, the group began its visit
to Poland at the Aushwitz-
Birkenau death camp complex
near Cracow. Expecting to be
confronted with the full horror
of the German death machine,
participants were unprepared
for what they witnessed there,
at Maidanek the following day,
and amidst the remains of the
Warsaw Ghetto later in the
week. Aushwitz had become a
museum, Birkenau's barracks
were getting new roofing, and
the Warsaw Ghetto had been
transformed into a park.
"It is very difficult to get a
true sense of what happened in
those places, near cafeterias
and booths selling picture post
cards, with groups of visiting
Poles extolling the heroism of
the Polish people (with little, if
any, mention of the Jewish
dimension of the tragedy),"
said participant Rachel
Kossoff.
It was not until Treblinka
that the group was moved by
what they saw. Treblinka, a
concentration camp designed
solely for the extermination of
Jews, is located in the middle
of a forest. It was totally
destroyed by the Germans in
1943 in order to eliminate all
traces of their heinous deeds.
Today all that one can see
are stark stone markers listing
the names of Jewish com-
munities and families that
nished. The personal impact
TMt
of the Holocaust was
graphically illustrated when
one of Jacksonvilles teens,
David Bielski, found the name
of his grandmother (who even-
tually escaped from Treblinka)
on one of the stone markers.
In Poland our teens found a
country astoundingly
backward-economically, social-
ly and politically. Surrounded
by peasants working the land
by hand, piling interminable
supplies of hay onto
horsedrawn wagons, one
senses that he has taken a
500-year leap backward into
history.
The fact that Poland is a
Communist country was
always apparent. No one, not
even the few Jews that re-
main, can be trusted-anyone
can be a government informer.
History is completely re-
written, erasing 1,000 years of
Jewish culture and presence.
Nearly 3,000,000 Polish Jews
were killed during World War
II. This fact is hardly mention-
ed. The unique Jewish dimen-
sion of the Holocaust is sub-
sumed amidst a host of ethnic
groups.
Poland is a country whose
tourism is based on death and
destruction. Jewish groups of
various ages, from different
parts of the world, converge
on the country to see the re-
mains of the once vibrant
Jewish community and the
mechanism of evil that
destroyed it.
For many, the climax of the
trip in Poland was Shabbat in
Warsaw. The group stayed at
the Europejski Hotel-Gestapo
headquarters during World
War II. As "Shema Yisrael"
and "Ani Ma'amin" echoed
through the halls where Ger-
man boots once strode, neither
the irony of the group's
presence nor faith in the
ultimate victory of the Jewish
people could have been more
complete.
Friday evening, par-
ticipants, along with a group of
60 visiting Jewish teens from
Israel and U.S., walked
through the streets of
downtown Warsaw to the
city's only functioning
synagogue. Said Shari
Goldschmidt, "Walking
together to Shabbat services
Friday night made the trip
really special." Nonetheless,
the stares elicited these
/appot-wearing teens left no
doubt in anyone's mind that
anti-Semitism is alive and well
in Poland.
Afterwards, the strains of
Friday night Kiddush and
Shabbat zemirot (Sabbath
songs) filled the former SS of-
ficer's dining room as Polish
waiters stared open-mouthed.
Shabbat morning the
synagogue was filled with a
congregation as diverse as the
people of Israel itself:
teenagers from throughout the
U.S., adults from Chicago and
Israel and the few remaining
elderly Jews of Warsaw (the
city's total Jewish population
is estimated at no more than
600). As each group interacted
with one another, the at-
mosphere became electric.
When the service ended with
"Am Yisrael Chai," few dry
eyes remained.
After Shabbat, the Betar
group reflected upon its week
Amos Doron the ISRAELI Betar Shaliach conducting a
Memorial Ceremony at Berkenaw-Death Camp. The ISRAEL
Flag is displayed .on the destroyed Crematorium, (see page
Flash Back on a Betar tour to Poland and ISRAEL)
in Poland. Was it worth the ar-
duous journey? Beyond any
doubt, all agreed. No partici-
pant will ever again hear those
infamous names-Aushwitz,
Maidanek, Treblinka-without
having an indelible picture in
his mind's eye. How did the
teens feel? Angry said many 
anger at the Germans and 
Poles for what they did and for
their enduring anti-Semitism,
and angry at the world for let-
ting 6,000,000 Jews perish.
Would these teenagers want
their children to have the same
experience? Responses varied.
Randy Figur commented that,
"I'm sure that by the time my
children are old enough to
come here it will all be one big
museum, without any trace re-
maining of what happened to
the Jews. But that is as it
should be," he continued. "My
children will be able to learn
from books and films. They
will be living with a strong
Israel and not be obsessed with
the Holocaust."
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23TISHRI5748
Friday, October 16,1987
Volume 9
Number 21
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