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Nahum Barnea

Rethink Auschwitz trips

Woe is us if Israeli teens need to travel to Auschwitz in order to feel Jewish

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is being marked in some countries Wednesday, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. On this occasion delegations of survivors, politicians, and religious figures arrive at the Birkenau camp, near Auschwitz, and utter the words that are usually uttered on this day. The site is so terrible and so traumatic that it overwhelms even the most tired clichés with its horror.

 

Meanwhile, high school students also arrive at Auschwitz. A total of 1.3 million people visited the site in 2009, a record number according to the museum’s website; many of them were teens. They usually come with their classes, from all over the world, and march behind their guides with an air of dignity, slowly passing by the exhibits of hairs, suitcases and personal belongings. Usually they are silent. Sometimes they cry. With the exception of Israeli high school students.

 

It would be wrong to make generalizations about all Israeli high school delegations that head to Poland. However, based on what I saw there with my own eyes in my two visits there, and based on what I heard from other Israelis, the behavior of some of these delegations is unusually conspicuous. They make noise, quarrel, hug, and kiss. This wild behavior hurts others, who wish to concentrate and honor the Shoah’s memory.

 

What’s worse, this behavior hinders the educational objective which the Education Ministry, schools, and parents invest in. The only baggage carried by the reckless students is the alcohol they drink during their nights in Poland.

 

Some of them likely behave this way when they travel with their friends to Eilat, Greece, or Cyprus, or when they buy large quantities of vodka at kiosks over the weekend. Alcohol consumption among students has turned into a national problem. To our great shame, it does not stop at the entrance to Auschwitz.

 

Go to Yad Vashem first 

Everything hinges on the preparation, the teachers say. Students who embark on this trip after studying the subject in depth and after undergoing the proper mental preparation go through the visit in a dignified manner. I assume that they are right. However, preparation requires great investment of time and money, which some schools cannot afford and which would have to come at the expense of other things.

 

When Israeli high school trips to Auschwitz got underway, some feared the nationalistic character of such visits. They were not happy about the prospect of seeing students marching while demonstratively draped in Israeli flags. Others feared that the trauma would corrupt the students’ tender souls: Every Hebrew mother is on guard for fear that her son will go through harsh experiences during his military service, yet when it comes to a more traumatic experience at a younger age, Hebrew mothers pay for the trip and wait to hear the stories. The only protest voiced by the parents has to do with the inflated prices they have to pay.

 

The need for significant financial contribution by the parents created unhealthy discrimination among different students and different schools. This problem would be sufficient to prompt doubts about the justification for such delegations. If the trips to Poland are so important in educational terms, the Education Ministry should be funding them. If they are not so important, it would be better for the Education Ministry to focus on more important missions.

 

As opposed to other chapters in Jewish history, it appears that the Holocaust is not destined to be forgotten. Maybe this is the case because of the extent of the horror, or because of the fears of a second Holocaust, or perhaps because the Shoah, more than any other element, is what links Jews today wherever they are.

 

I assume that a visit to Auschwitz reinforces the connection of young Israelis to the Jewish people, but woe is us if they need to travel all the way to Auschwitz in order to feel Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist.

 

For the time being, they can visit the new and impressive Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, for the educational value, the experience, and the awareness. The rest can be achieved by the imagination.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.27.10, 17:10
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