When we arrived at the last set of gas chambers, we noticed a large crowd. As we got closer we saw they were in uniform and singing – in Hebrew – a song, “Ashes and Dust.” We were told that this was a group of 100 Israeli military officers who, as part of their training, visit the extermination camps.
Then a ceremony took place in front of a monument of an enormous mound of human ashes. The officers marched in with the Israeli flag unfurled, followed by poetry and song. Kaddish was recited and the ceremony concluded with the singing of Hatikvah.
For four weeks we had traveled throughout Eastern Europe, now a graveyard for most of European Jewry. Here in Majdanek we shed tears for those who perished, but took enormous pride in the presence of the Israeli soldiers who are so fervently committed to ensuring the continuity of the Jewish people.
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When we returned from our trip we immediately visited my aunt and brought her a picture of Franz Josef as he looked when she met him in 1913. She recognized him instantly, and was so moved that she asked her daughter Claire to place the picture in a frame, and there it sits near her bedside. My sister brought her a sample of the well water. When she saw a photograph of the famous well, she remembered that the cover of the well was especially put on in preparation for Franz Josef’s visit.
We exchanged stories with my aunt and felt fortunate that my father had also shared his stories with us throughout his life. Every family has stories to tell – but every story needs listeners so that they can be passed on as a legacy to children and grandchildren.
How blessed I feel to be part of such a legacy, to have shared it with my sister, Pearl; my husband, Arthur; my brother-in-law, George; and my Tanta Anna.
