Angelenos will join thousands from around the world on Monday in Poland for the international March of the Living to commemorate the loss of millions of Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II.
The annual event draws an estimated 10,000 people who march from Auschwitz to other Nazi-era concentration camps.
Eight Holocaust survivors and 22 staff people will accompany some 180 area teens to the event. They'll meet up with delegations from more than 30 other nations, then travel on to Jerusalem for Israel's Memorial and Independence Day commemorations.
"It's a very powerful teaching tool because, ultimately, you're touching the past and the future," said Monise Neumann, director of the L.A. March of the Living contingent for Builders of Jewish Education, which organizes the local effort.
"It's not only about honoring the people who were murdered. It's also a celebration of life. We go to Poland to remember not only how 6 million people died, but how they lived as well."
The marchers, who flew to Europe early Wednesday morning, are in the midst of a full week of activities that include meetings with Polish teens and members of that country's Jewish community, righteous Gentiles who helped Jews escape the Nazis, and visits to survivors' hometowns and historical sites in the cities of Krakow and Lodz.
They'll also, of course, be interacting with contemporaries from all over the world, mostly Jewish but also from a
variety of other backgrounds. Hungary and Austria - which supported Germany during Adolf Hitler's genocidal spree - are sending busloads of high school students, and a delegation is even coming from China.Among the most valuable experiences for those on the march - which is open 10th- thru 12th-graders, but mostly consists of high school seniors - is spending time with the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors who act as guides for the trip.
Sidonia Lax of Sherman Oaks is making her fifth March of the Living this year. Now 84, she was a self-described "rotten spoiled only child" in Eastern Poland when the Germans invaded. Her parents were killed in the Lvov ghetto, and she survived Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and four labor camps in Germany before escaping during an Allied bombing raid days before the war ended.
By 1946, Lax was living in Southern California with an uncle she hadn't known existed before the war. She attended USC and UCLA, and ran a successful garment business with her husband. She has three children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and says they all see each other once a week.
Lax embarked on her first March of the Living in 2007 with her grandson Joey Boujo. She wanted to show him the wooden slats that passed for her bed in the concentration camp.
"As much as he heard my story, how I survived but lost my whole family and all that, until I brought him to Auschwitz, it didn't click," Lax noted. "Education, you have to touch before you teach, and the whole march is about touching history."
Lax continued to apply a tactile, personal approach to subsequent journies.
"I wrestle my hands with the kids and I sit on the floor with them and we sing and we talk 'til 12 o'clock at night," she said. "They pay attention."
To prepare for this trip, the petite, firm-gripping Lax worked out with a trainer and hit the treadmill.
"I try very hard to keep my body going because over there we march miles, climb mountains, all kinds of stuff," Lax cheerfully explained. "We're on and off the bus every single day, with a 50-pound bag. The kids always offer to carry it, but many times they forget or they're busy, so you do it yourself. It's not easy at all.
"As long as there's music in my body, though, I will do it because I feel that the children gain so much," she added.
Jordan Grant tried to curb her expectations before she left, but had little doubt she'd gain quite a bit from participating in the march. The New Community Jewish High School senior is in Poland now, and plans to celebrate her 18th birthday in Israel next Sunday.
"I'm very close to my grandmother, who is a survivor," the Northridge teenager said. "I've been hearing stories, more and more detailed, as I've grown up. As long as I've known about the program, it felt like an obligation for both my parents and I to send me on this trip.
"I'm really looking forward to being in the place where my grandma was, especially because her experience has been so impactful on my Judaism," Grant added. "I value my Judaism so much because I realize how rare it is to be able to express it so openly."
Before she was accepted into the program Grant, like all teenage applicants, had to pass a maturity level interview and sign a contract governing the marchers' behavior while overseas.
"It was more of a `this-is-what-you're-getting-yourself-into' conversation than an interview," Grant explained. "The whole process of applying is having an understanding that this is not a vacation, this is not a trip, this is not an excuse to miss five days of school. This is a responsibility, in a sense, and you have a job to fulfill something when you go on this trip.
"You don't get to be a bystander, you have to be an upstander. You have to listen, you have to take it in."
Neumann pointed out that the New York-based March organization provides 24/7 security and medical care during the two weeks abroad, plus all hotels, transportation and kosher meals.
The program is open to all Jewish teens. It costs about $6,000 to go, and some financial assistance is available for those who cannot afford it. Application deadline for next year's march is in December, 2011. To apply and for more information, go to www.bjela.org.
Bear in mind, too, that this opportunity won't be available in its present form for many more years.
"When I first came to America, nobody wanted to hear our survivor stories," Lax said in her irony-informed, Slavic accent. "`Oh, don't tell me, I don't want to have a heart attack." Today, all of a sudden, we've become heroes - because we are dying out.
"I recently talked to two students who were in the march a couple of years ago," she added. "They said when they have a problem today, they say `What am I complaining about? Sidonia was on a death march with no shoes, no food, nothing.'
"It is traumatic; as many times as I talk about it, it hurts. But it helps the kids psychologically, to improve the way they cope. And that's the most important thing."
If You Go:
What: Community Wide Holocaust Remembrance Day: Diaries from the Holocaust will be part of the ceremony at 2:45 p.m. Sunday at the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument, north end of Pan Pacific Park between Beverly Boulevard and Third Street. Information at 310-821-9919 or 310-280-5010.
Tara Reed Natassia Malthe Jennifer Sky Scarlett Chorvat Jamie Gunns
No comments:
Post a Comment