Kaplan Documents World War II Trip
The educational program was sponsored by the World War II Museum in New Orleans and took the group to historic sites in Germany and Poland.
Atlantan Alan Kaplan recently participated in a World War II trip to Germany and Poland, sponsored by the World War II Museum in New Orleans. The educational program, entitled “The Rise and Fall of Hitler’s Germany,” took the group to historic sites in Berlin, Krakow, and Warsaw.
Joined by his wife, Barbara, Kaplan provides a firsthand account of the many experiences the group shared. Read on to learn more about the Kaplans’ trip.
Berlin, Germany
My wife’s father and my own father served in the Second World War. My father, Marvin Kaplan, served first in dental school, and then as a dentist. My father-in-law, Homer Gordon, was a true hero. He was in a tank from the coast of France all the way to Berlin. In their honor and memory, we dedicate this trip to them. This is not a Jewish tour, but many of the sites that we will be visiting are such infamous sites as the Wannsee Mansion, Schindler’s factory, and Auschwitz.
While wandering around Berlin today, I noticed many of the parallels between Berlin in the 1930s and America today. Seeing iconic Berlin locations like Unter Der Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Teagarden remind us of the infamy of the Final Solution. As history has told us, the Nazis were howling for the Jews as early as 1933 … One of my parent’s closest friends escaped just as the door was slamming behind him. His parents and his sister were murdered by the Nazis. We met his uncle at a family event, and he informed us that he begged his brother to leave but he refused to go. He refused to believe what was happening in this supposed civilized Germany. I believe that the Jews in Germany were shocked and mystified by what was happening just like we are today … Now it is the Palestinians, but in the 1930s, Jews needed to be eliminated simply because they were breathing air. We don’t understand how in a few short months, the world seemed to forget “never again.”
In the center of Berlin is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is next door to the American Embassy and one block from the Brandenburg Gate. The monument demands to be seen. It is impossible to miss … It is almost five acres and consists of hundreds of stelae organized in rows and columns. It is disorienting and frightening.
On our first day of touring in Berlin, we visited Wannsee Mansion, the site of the infamous Wannsee Conference. In February 1942, 15 senior officials of the German government, the Nazi party, and SS leaders met at Hitler’s villa on the shores of Lake Wannsee. At this conference, they discussed and began to implement the Final Solution. These officials discussed cooperating on the planned deportation and murder of European Jews … As we enter the beautiful grounds we are met by a jarring photograph of an Israeli hostage in Gaza, Alex Danzig. This photo is a shocking reminder of all the hostages in Gaza and why things change, they stay the same.
Krakow, Poland
Outside of Krakow is the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp …. We have seen pictures of the camp. We have heard the testimony of survivors. We have seen movies. We have seen stacks of bodies. Images that will never leave our minds. Nothing compares to seeing it in person. As you enter the camp, you are met with the infamous train railing and the building, and you are filled with horror. More than a million individuals were murdered in Auschwitz. Ninety percent of them were Jews just like you and me. They were from all over Europe. Extermination on an industrial scale. According to our guide, in late 1944 over 400,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in 56 days. Mathematically, that is 6,000 murders per day when they knew that they were losing the war. Words fail me.
You can enter via the same tracks that the trains entered. Yahrzeit candles appropriately litter the track. You then walk a short distance to the selection platform where 75 to 80 percent were sent immediately to the gas chambers which are another short walk … The words of Ben Hirsch, the designer of the Breman Holocaust Museum, rings in my ears. Hirsch was a Holocaust survivor on the last kinder transport out of Germany. His younger siblings were left behind and they were murdered. Hirsch asked, “Who kills children?”
A short walk from the selection platform leads to a ramp and on to the gas chamber. People were undressed and were sent into these exact gas chambers. It happened right here. On this exact spot. No one survived. Mass murder was committed here. This is what genocide looks like — literally next door was the crematorium. As they were retreating, the Nazis attempted to destroy the evidence of their unforgivable crimes. You can feel their souls. Spontaneous repetitions of the Mourner’s Kaddish are necessary to remember the dead and to especially comfort the living. At the nearby museum, more evidence of the extermination is seen — a room of Zyklon B cannisters, tallit, and even thousands of eyeglasses are preserved. And finally, the typical Nazi welcome, “Arbeti Macht Frei,” or “work will make you free.”
Warsaw, Poland
The highlight of any visit to Warsaw is a visit to the Polish Jewish Museum or Polin. The museum is on the site of the Warsaw ghetto, and directly outside is a beautiful statue commemorating the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The Hebrew word “Polin” means either “Poland” or “rest here.” Jews have lived in Poland for 1,000 years. The museum looks clear eyed at Poland’s past, including its antisemitism. No subject is forbidden, and everything is documented in the museum. Nothing is sanitized including the Holocaust … Polin is a comprehensive museum.
For hundreds of years, Poland was the center of the Jewish world. Poland became more tolerant of Jews as Spain, Austria, Hungary, and Germany were expelling them. This period from the 15th to the 17th centuries is known as the golden age of Polish Jewry. Jews were protected. One of the quotes on the wall remarks, “Their hatred of us in this country has not overwhelmed us as in the German lands. May it remain so until the coming of the Messiah.”
Shtetl life is also commemorated in the museum … Polin ends with the horror of the Warsaw ghetto, the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the Holocaust … Our guide stressed that while some Poles helped the Jews, many did not. He also noted that until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Poles of his age group knew nothing of this history.
Warsaw and all of Poland is filled with monuments commemorating Jewish suffering. Outside of Polin there is the famous sculpture of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Portions of the ghetto wall have been preserved and signs marking the location of the ghetto are everywhere. Another monument memorializes the famous steps over the street in the Warsaw ghetto … There is even a movement by the local government to restore the ancient Jewish cemetery. Too little and too late you say, but at least they are making an effort.
Another highlight of our trip was meeting with three Polish survivors of World War II. One of the gentlemen was a member of the resistance and one was a nurse during the war. They were used to carry messages between members of the resistance. One gentleman was captured and sent to Auschwitz and then to Mauthausen concentration camp where he spent the war engaged in slave labor in a quarry mine, and then he made parts in the Messerschmitt jet factory. He was a prisoner for six years.
Our final night in Poland was at the house of our guide, Alex Richie, DPhil. Alex’s house is in a suburb of Warsaw and was the headquarters for Gen. Herbert Otto Gille, commander of the fifth SS Panzergrenadier Division, “Wiking,” during the battle of Radzymin … After dinner, her husband, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, spoke. He is the deputy foreign minister of Poland and the son of the same named Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. The elder Bartoszewski was detained in a SS round up in September 1940. He was held in Auschwitz until April 1941. He then joined the Polish resistance. As part of his war time resistance, he assisted the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. After the war, he gathered information about Nazi crimes, the concentration camps and prisons. This brought him to the attention of the Communist government who imprisoned him as well. Due to his help for the Jews during the war, he was invited to Yad Vashem in 1963. He lived in Israel from September to November 1963. In 1966, he received the medal of Righteous Among the Nations.
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