Poland Essay

          Elliana Bogost

April 7, 20116

The country of Poland appears to me as a bleak and dark place.  The history of twentieth century Poland is filled with many horrible things.  For the Jewish People, Poland represents the past.  Poland was a place where many Jews resided before 1939.  In fact, before WWII, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe.  However, even before WWII, anti-Semitism was on the rise.  Once Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the handwriting was on the wall.  Even though Jews were a very small percentage of the population of Poland, they had been successful compared to their population and this gave rise to anti-Semitism.  Therefore, when I visited Poland, as a Jew, one cannot help feel an overwhelmingly sadness.  Knowing that at one time this country had a wonderful, thriving Jewish community and then it was completely wiped out.

        We visited the town of Tycocin, which is a run down small town with only a couple thousand people in it.  But before WWII, there were at least a couple of thousand Jews that lived there.  The Jewish people lived in Tykocin and worked there.  They raised families and built lives for themselves.  The town was once known as a shtetl.  The Jewish people spoke Yiddish and even though there was a lot of hatred toward the Jews after WWI, there was a very vibrant Jewish community.  The town of Tycocin before WWII represents life.  The small town of Tykocin was a very active place.  Jews worked in different areas.  They spoke Yiddish, Polish and Hebrew.  It was a lively placed filled with families and businesses, schools and synagogues.  Jews had lived there since the 1500’s.  However, in 1941, the Nazi’s marched in and were ordered to kill all of the Jews of Tykocin.  Over 2000 Jews were marched into the forest and shot to death.  They were taken into the Lupochowo Forest and shot by the Nazis in the summer of 1941.  A thriving Jewish town, which was filled with life, was now obliterated.  The Forest is now forever, the symbol of death.  At this moment in time, the town of Tykocin died along with the Jews.  It has never been the same.  There is the blood of the murdered Jews that runs through the forest.

        Even though the Holocaust was filled with horrific acts of humanity there were many times that brave and courageous people did their best to stand up to the Nazis, even though they were facing death.  Janus Korczak was a Polish Jew who was a Doctor, and author.  However, he also ran a Jewish orphanage.  There were almost 200 boys that lived in the orphanage.  In 1939 the Nazis made Dr. Korczak move his orphanage into the Ghetto.  In August of 1942 German soldiers came to get the orphans.  The Germans were familiar with Dr. Korczak because he wrote famous children’s books.  The Nazis offered to let Dr. Korczak go free but he refused.  He wanted to stay with his children.  He told them that they were being moved to somewhere nicer.  He never told them they were going to die.  They were marched through the streets in their best clothes.  He was holding their hands and they were taken to Treblinka to never be heard from again.  It was an act of defiance that he marched with his children.  He did not what them to go to their deaths alone.  Even though the Nazis murdered them, Dr. Korczak won.  He refused to leave his children.  He tried to protect them until the very end.  He wanted them to go out with dignity.  He gave his own life to make sure they did not have to march to their deaths without him.  There were others that defied the Nazis.  There were nurses who poisoned sick Jewish kids because they did not want them to die at the hands of the Nazis.  It was in defiance of the Nazis murdering the children.  There were thousands of others that defied the Nazis, whether physically or mentally.

        Rabbi Emil Fackenheim survived the Holocaust and believed that there should be a 614th mitzvah which is basically to believe in God and be a Jew even in the face of what Hitler did to the Jewish people.  It is also to make sure that Israel exists and Jews must make sure Israel survives.  There are 613 Commandments and Rabbi Fackenheim believed that this should be the 614th.  I think that the idea of not allowing Hitler to win is very important.  I believe that every generation of Jews that exists shows that the Jewish people will not die out.  Every Jew owes it to the Jews that were murdered by Hitler to carry on our faith.  It is difficult to understand how something so horrific could happen to six million people.  It is understandable that people may lose their faith but it would be worse for the Jews to turn away from their faith as the survivors.  It is important to never let the world forget.  After so many of our people were murdered simply for being Jewish, those of us who are born into freedom must be sure to carry out our faith and make sure we never die out for the memory of our ancestors and for future generations.

        The Holocaust was horrific and when standing on the land of where so many of our people were slaughtered, it is so overwhelmingly sad to think that the world stood silent.  It is frightening to see similar things happen today with refugees all over the world.  It is difficult to understand how humans can treat others like animals and even worse.  However, the wonderful thing is that the Jewish people have survived and the State of Israel is here and thriving.   We must be leaders to the rest of the world to help those that cannot help themselves and make sure that the Holocaust never happens again.