A Chamber of Death and Hell

Today was Majdanek. After a long three hour bus ride, we arrive in a city. Hugely populated, very urban, lots of people. I saw a street fair with children's rides and festivities. Then, I saw the complete and polar opposite. We took a main road less then a mile outside of the hussel and bussel of the town, right near Lublin, and saw Majdanek. From the road you could almost say it was a farm. A huge opening, hills and buildings. And death and horror. All of this, right in a city. Someone's home was less then 500 feet behind a gas chamber. The sut on their home window was the ash blown over from the crematorium that massacred my ancestors. How do you just put this death factory in the center of a town. I said, Treblinka somewhat made sense; this did not. How do you not say anything when hundreds go in a building and nothing comes out but a devil with a swastika and human ash? Majdanek was opened in September 1941 and held prisoners from October 1941 until its liberation by the Soviet army in July 1944. The camp had 22 barracks and 13 gas chambers. At its peak, 45,000 prisoners were held there with up to 800 people in a barrack of 90 beds. The Nazis had a plan to build up the camp to hold 250,000 people but were never successful. In total, 235,000 people perished in Majdanek, a large majority Jews. 60% of those people were simply from disease, starvation, overwork, or exhaustion because of the unbearable living conditions. We walked in the entrance of the camp and saw a massive structure. This was a monument constructed as a memorial for the horrors that occurred on the grounds in front of us. The monument is broken down in 6 parts to remember the six million sons and daughters who perished. In front of that stands a large pit with rocks lining the edges. This was constructed to resemble the gas chamber. A ramp led you inside of the pit and stairs took you back out. Directly before the stairs is a small crack leading out of the pit. This is significant of the tiny percentage of people (500 to be exact) who survived. This held more significance to me then the average as I held the hand of a remarkable human being who would not be here if not for that crack. The friend standing with me's grandfather escaped Majdanek paying for his life with his mother's diamond. It really put material items into proportion for me. We continued past the monument into the camp. My journey in this camp was awful. It was death after death after more death. The first death we witnessed was the gas chamber. There is only one still in existence at Majdanek but that one was fully in tact. Despite the few buildings the Nazis were able to destroy, the camp is the same as it was 65 years ago and can be up and running in 48 hours. This chamber was what I expected. At Auschwitz I, they used Zyclon B pellets entered into the chamber through square holes in the ceiling. While one of the chambers I walked into today was the same, there were also the carbon monoxide ones which were what I have heard about. Here is the sickest part, this one building had 5 gas chambers. They could kill hundreds of people at the same time in five different places at once. The first room in this annihilation complex hurt me. I was nauseous, had trouble breathing, distraught. There were maybe 50 shower heads lining the entire span of the ceiling. I quivered imagining the gas that killed innocent mothers and children. I then realized that this was even a worse place. Where I stood not a single person dies. You may say well then good. No, this was actually a shower that provided hope for these helpless souls. To make things worse, the Nazis would torture the people by rapidly switching the water from boiling hot to ice cold. They said it opened their pours so that the gas in the next room would kill them quicker. As I said, this was a complex of death. Past the shower room there was one room that could kill people using Zyclone B. The walls still stained blue, evidence of the chemical slaughtering that these heartless Nazis committed. If the Nazis had other people waiting to be gassed or just wanted to watch the demon crimes they were committing, they would herd the people past this first hell and into one of the four chambers ahead of them with metal pipes lining the perimeter. I then stood where the devil stood. Where they took pleasure out of the screams and cries I painfully heard in my mind. There were 2 carbon monoxide tanks in a closet with a glass covered window showing you the gas chamber. The Nazis would turn on the gas and watch. Tens of thousands of people were watched perish in the dungeon I stood in. I left alive. Thousands before me never had that chance. Why am I so lucky? Why are (yha, you reading this) so lucky and fortunate? I don't comprehend it. We continued down the road with tears and horror and nausea and disgust in our guts. We entered barracks which were turned into exhibits. These barracks were long uncomfortable wood structures that would house hundreds of people. There were many interesting exhibits but I will only share a couple. I walk into one building and am confronted with the villain. I see in front of me a uniform bearing a swastika. I now understand the harmful message and unspeakable hate behind that small symbol. I see the uniform of the Nazi that directed thousands through death and torture in enjoyment. I see a wall of photographs. Photos of the Nazis. I stare these sick, twisted individuals in the eye. I have built up hate, and anger. After the war, only 80 of the 1,300 Nazis at Majdanek were murdered. For their terrible crimes against human beings, the others were allowed to live. I looked the devils in the eye and I realized that there was no means of justice for them. The next exhibit that impacted me, similar to in Auschwitz, was an entire barrack filled with shoes. Hundreds of thousands of shoes. Each pair with a story. Where that person has traveled, what they accomplished in those shoes. But then I thought, every single shoe ended their story with "... And then I was brought to Majdanek". The horror and sadness in the little girl with the small white sandals. The teenage girl with the red high heel shoes. All of the stories behind this mound of shoes filling this entire building.

We continued through the camp. Past the barracks through this horrifically large place. We walked into a barrack. Fully intact, beds and all. Each bed slept 10 or more people. The uncomfortable sleeping conditions were obvious. Yet we continued. We went to a mausoleum. A massive structure that held 18,000 pounds of ashes. Right at the end of the camp sat the destruction that this camp produced. They produced destruction.
One should produce creation, not the other way. Tens of thousands of family members cremated down to nothing more then a speck of earth. We then walked down the stairs of this massive dome of ash. The size really cannot be properly expressed in words. It is scary to think this was only a fraction of the people killed at Majdanek. Other ashes were used to fertilize soil and were deposed of like garbage. We walked down the stairs and into the crematorium. Six ovens where the lifeless bodies went after being gassed or dieing from illness. It was incredibly emotional to see how these humans were treated as anything but that. They were treated simply as garbage. They were in no means cared for.

November 3, 1943 was the deadliest was the most tragic day in Majdanek's existence. They called it "Erntefest" or the Harvest Festival. The Nazis forced the Jews to dig large holes and then shot 18,000 Jews in that one day. Their bodies were then dropped into these holes in the ground. These Jews dug their own grave. They were shot as the Nazis sang and danced in order to drown out the sounds of their gun shots. I walked past these hills. Thousands of bodies building up the ground in front of me. It is an unthinkable crime that the Nazis committed.

Before we left, the navy bus did a ceremony for the group. This was our transition from the sadness and horror of these camps and ghettos we witnessed in the past week to the joy that we will soon embrace in our homeland. We all joined hands and lined up in the formation of a Magen David. All intertwined, all together. We ended the ceremony chanting Hatizvah, the hope. We have hope. We are so fortunate to be alive today. After a long bus ride and then a bit of a flight we will arrive in Israel.

I have learned that this trip is called the March of the Living for a reason. Despite the heartlessness of the Nazis. Despite the unthinkable crimes that Hitler committed against humanity. We are the living. We are here and we are hopeful for the future of the Jewish people. We will arrive in Israel full of hope, pride, joy. This is my first time to Israel and I could not be more excited. I am going to the homeland of my people. I am the living who will march home together with thousands.
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