Yom Ha-Shoah

       During this trip I had the honor of experiencing Yom Ha'Shoah in Israel. After visiting Poland, hearing the Siren and watching everyone, even those driving on the highway, completely stop and pay their respects for two minutes for the 6,000,000 who perished gave me chills. Not only that, but I found it pleasantly ironic that right after the Siren my Jewish History class had a "Zionist Congress" and discussed the start of the State of Israel. Of course hearing the Siren could not be emotionally compared to the weeklong trip to Poland, it did bring back many of the horrific memories of walking in, and out, of Auschwitz-Birkenau, seeing, but not quite believing, the huge pile of human ash at Majdanek, and hearing the confession of a person buried alive with her dead companions at Tikochin. However, it also reminded me how there were those in the Shoah who stood up against this racist and sadistic tyranny, such as Janush Korchuk, those who helped smuggle food into the ghettos, and  the participants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The strength and bravery of the Jewish People, even in times where there seems to be no hope, will never cease to amaze me. Yom Ha'Shoah is not simply a day to remember those who were murdered without cause in the Shoah, but also to reflect on how now there is a Jewish State which will protect us from any other source of anti-semitism in the future.