This past Sunday, our group departed for Poland. Before leaving I really didn’t know what to expect at all. Because we are always so busy here, I honestly didn’t have much time to fully think about it and comprehend where I was about to be going and all of the history behind it. Right when we got there, we went to our first site which was the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. At our first spot, I was expecting to feel emotional right away, but once we got there, it was hard for me to relate and truly understand what I was seeing.  The next day was when we went to the concentration camp Majdanek.  At Majdanek, we learned about the history of the camp, how many people were victims of it as well as the atrocities that occurred there.  We walked throughout the camp and saw the gas chambers and walked in the barracks where people slept. The camp was unbelievable large and there was so much to see. One of the craziest things was seeing the extremely small beds that three or more people had to share. Inside the barracks were plaques where we were able to read information about Majdanek. After seeing the majority of the camp, there was one spot left that we had to go see. It was a huge mound of ashes of the victims of Majdanek. As soon as I saw the ashes, it suddenly became more realistic to me of what happened during the time of the Nazis.  Knowing how small the amount of ashes of one person would be, it was absolutely shocking to see this  pile as tall as a large hill. At this site, we had a ceremony for the victims of Majdanek where we listened to a song, a poem and sang the Hatikvah. At each concentration camp we sang the Hatikvah to symbolize how the Nazis tried to end the existence of the Jewish people and that it didn’t work and now we are stronger than ever. At this ceremony, I watched some of my friends break down and start to cry. Honestly, I really wish that I was able to cry and feel that emotional about the situation but in this moment I couldn’t bring myself to actually cry. I still felt extremely connected and emotional however. Besides Majdanek, I believe that Auschwitz was the most impactful place that we visited. There are two parts of the camp Auschwitz, camps one and two. At camp one, we traveled around the site with a tour guide who spoke to us through head phones about the buildings and artifacts inside of them. In comparison to Majdanek, this was much more like a museum. Personally, I didn’t feel connect to this display as much because of the museum feel.The one part that was amazing to see was the book of names of all of the victims. Although I know that none of my dad’s family was in the Holocaust, there were so many people with his last name in the book. That really put the huge number of 6 million victims into perspective for me. Then after a break for lunch, we traveled to the second camp, Birkenau. This was what you’d think a concentration camp would look and feel like. At the entrance of the camp, there is a large gate with train tracks leading out of it.  On both sides, there were barracks where the women and men slept. As we continued through the camp, we reached the remains of the gas chambers, as well as the crematorium. At the back of the camp there was the “sauna” where the people who were selected for labor were taken, stripped of their clothes, and got a tattoo of a number which replaced their name. Walking around this gigantic camp was crazy to see. I could feel my feet hurting after walking for maybe 3 hours, when the people of Auschwitz we suffering here until their death. After a week of intense, deep learning and understanding of the Holocaust, I am extremely happy to be back here in the Hod. With such a short time left, I’m happy to be back with the warm weather, living in my dorm room with my friends and being back in the amazing state of Israel!