Under the auspices of the Beit Shemesh - Adulam - Washington DC - South Africa Partnership 2000 a group of 60 students from Beit Shemesh-Adulam and Cape Town South Africa just returned from a fascinating trip to Poland together. The preparation for the trip began several months ago when the kids starting studying in parallel about the Holocaust in their respective schools. The program was done in conjunction with the two high schools of Beit Shemesh (secular and religious) Schieber and Feurst as well as Herzilia school in South Africa.

The South Africans flew to Israel and had a few days of home hospitality with their peers in the region. In the few days they managed to get in a joint tour of Jerusalem, a seminar at Yad Vashem, and a meeting with the mayor of Beit Shemesh. The group then flew together to Poland for seven very busy days. The group visited the concentration camps of Treblinka, Chelmeno, Meidanik, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was overwhelming learning about these death factories and the devastation they had caused to the millions of innocent people. Through the remains of the Jewish cemeteries in Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, and Cracow they got an opportunity not only to learn about individuals in the communities, but also about the communities and their lives before and during the war.

Perhaps most touching was visiting the former shtetls like that of Tikochin. In Tikochin all the Jews were rounded up and killed in 3 mass graves in the nearby forest. After visiting a few of these former shtetls one just begins to realize the scale of destruction that occurred to the rich Jewish community that had been there for hundreds of years. Learning about their conditions in the ghettos of Warsaw, Cracow and other cities helped the group understand some of the different stages of the Holocaust, which was not just the few minutes in the gas chambers but the whole chain of events leading up to it. It was a very intense experience for everyone.

What made this group different from other groups visiting Poland was experiencing it together. Although the groups had separate buses during the day in order to get instruction in English and Hebrew they were together for almost all the meals and in the hotels together in the evening. They all went to synagogue together in Warsaw, and sang and danced together on Friday night. In fact their was a daily minyan every day comprised of Israelis and South Africans.

Each school held at least one ceremony at the major "sites". Each ceremony included readings in both English and Hebrew. The Herzilia group proudly sang their multi-lingual national anthem followed by Hatikvah at the conclusion of their ceremony. It was interesting for all involved to see the various dynamics and interaction.

The group returned to Beit Shemesh, where after a day of rest there was a joint debriefing and festive dinner at one of the moshavim. The South African group spent their last few days in Israel visiting family and friends, as for many of them it was their first time in Israel as well. Hopefully many of the kids will be in touch, not only was it great seeing the connection between the Israelis and South Africans, but also between the Israelis who are from the same city but because they study in separate high schools don't necessarily have that much to do with each other.

For everyone involved it was a learning experience, much thanks must go to the principals and teachers from all the schools, Mickey Blumberg (the South African representative in Israel) and Leon Singer, the chairman of Partnership 2000 in South Africa. This project would not have been possible without the dedication and energy of Razi Mamet the project manager for Beit Shemesh-Adulam, it's success is to his credit.

September 1999