Poland team spreads message of hope at Holocaust commemoration

A musician played his flute as the members of the Pilgrimage: Poland team filed into the dark Brown Alley Room, a lone candle lighting their way to the front of the room, where they took turns reflecting on their tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp during spring break.

The trip was sponsored by the Office of the Chaplaincy, sending eight students of Jewish or Christian faith, led by Rabbi Andrew Goodman, director of Jewish life, to Poland.

"We gather to try and commemorate the 11 million," Goodman said at "Witnessing Despair, Finding Hope: Commemorating the Holocaust" Wednesday night. "Three million Jewish Poles and 2.7 million Catholic Poles were murdered in the Holocaust. At Birkenau, the world's largest cemetery, we looked for answers and opportunities, and saw potential and hope.

"Each of us will light a candle to rekindle the charge of knowledge and humanity. There are times when darkness fills life. There are no words to reach beyond the fullness of night, only silence. Let us remember these victims as we link our silence."

Goodman then lit one of 11 candles, representing the team: Goodman; Terry Dolson, manager of community-based learning; Kim Catley, a University Communications writer who edited a blog about the pilgrimage, and the eight students, who spoke at the commemoration.

There were reflections on the awareness of children shepherded to their death and robbed of childhood; the few everyday possessions victims clung to in their final hours; the freezing winter in an abyss of mud; endless Nazi deception; the sacredness of the campground; the demolition of Warsaw and the famous shoes.

Junior Perry Lowder, a Christian, spoke about the counter-intuitive symbolism of the trains to the camp.

"Train tracks are typically a sign of progress, but in World War II, train tracks in Poland were a step backward," Lowder said. "The Nazis provided a lie of hope: trains to faraway camps where people could live peacefully.

"The most horrifying piece of this lie: some were convinced to buy tickets for this train. The tracks ran through the center of camp to give a glimpse of this torturous situation and hope of a way out, but there was no way out," he said.

Sophomore Rachel Poplack, who is Jewish, talked about how she felt people could overcome the negativity and loss of the Holocaust.

"Most people miss the kindness and hope people have in such dark situations," Poplack said. "Hatred and derision overrode compassion and humanity ... We can create hope and prevent hatred from trumping good again, only by remembering to have hope ourselves."

Lowder said that the group's primary goal was to try to communicate both the magnitude and personal nature of what happened.

"It's impossible to wrap your brain around the amount of destruction," Lowder said. "The failure to recognize humanity has stuck with me, and I hope people on campus can think harder about others and ... give every person dignity and respect."

Members of campus faith groups need to have open conversations about one another to build bridges among those groups and understand what makes each person unique, he said.

Lowder also went on the Chaplaincy spring break trip to the monastery in Taize, France, in 2012. He said the spring break programs were both emotionally and spiritually powerful but were different in other respects.

"My trip to Taize consisted of inward reflection and self-guided prayer," Lowder said. "Though I did soul-searching in Poland, too, our main effort was to look beyond ourselves and look at the history around us, so my lens on this trip was different.

The trips were also different because the program in Taize had a Christian perspective, whereas the trip to Poland had a multi-faith focus, Lowder said.

Goodman elaborated on what made his pilgrimages, both to Poland and to Israel on birthright, more powerful than his vacation to Israel.

"To be in any sort of target group and have to speak up for yourself is really tough," he said. "There were Poles who stood up, despite being murdered, because it was the right thing to do. It shows the power of being an ally and speaking up when we see injustice. We need that mentality on this campus. This still matters."

Although Poplack and Lowder agreed that they had a responsibility to bear that message, they said that nothing could do it more justice other than going and seeing the history and letting it speak to someone."But we certainly won't stop trying," Poplack said.

In addition to Birkenau, but the journey also included stays in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin, as well as trips to museums and religious services, including Mass and Shabbat, Lowder said. Poplack also mentioned that local media were enamored with the group.

"At the Catholic University of Lublin, where Pope John Paul II was a student and taught, TV and radio crews were interested because we were Christians and Jews together," Poplack said. The media crews noticed that the group was interested not only in the atrocities, but also in talking, learning and understanding all that happened, she said. Goodman said the team was still featured on a Polish website.

The last member of the group to share was first-year Molly Rossi, who tearfully read her thoughts about the exhibit of hair cut from 140,000 heads, just a fraction of the hair cut from Jews at Auschwitz to be sent to textile factories.

"Among a collection of women's braids, one 70-year-old braid stood out from the rest: long, blond and perfect, as if just cut," Rossi said. "I felt as though I knew her but couldn't remember her name. She wasn't just a victim. She was a person; the girl with the braid was anyone and everyone around me."

After the reflections, spectators joined the pilgrims in a recitation prayer of Psalm 23, which ends with the writer "dwelling in the house of the Lord." Goodman then invited spectators to light other candles that had been set out for a time of silent prayer, after which everyone stood and read the Mourner's Kaddish in Hebrew. Goodman then said a final blessing.

Before the commemoration began, the participants and spectators removed their shoes, a traditional symbol of reverence toward both God and the victims of the Holocast.

"With the ability to do so, I invite you to put your shoes on," he said, "and I pray that we may be willing to walk from here full of peace and life. Amen."

For a day-by-day look at Pilgrimage: Poland, visit Catley's blog at www.richmond.edu/poland

Contact reporter Zak Kerr at zak.kerr@richmond.edu