HAFTR students return from Poland, Germany

Twenty-four students from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway recently returned from a visit to the Machanot Hashmada and Mekomos Hakedoshim in Germany and Poland.

On this third annual Abraham Scharf Z”l mission, students learned about the vibrant Jewish life in Europe before the Shoah, about both Churban Europa and the Gevura (the destruction as well as the strength of the Jewish people), and about current Jewish life in Germany and Poland.

The first stop in Berlin Germany was davening in a shul which the Nazis, ym”s, used as a storage house. What a moment it was when the Torah was raised by Haggba in the same place where the Nazis tried to eradicate the Jewish people and history. The group next went to a deportation station from which the kedoshom were sent to their final destination.

The group arrived in Poland by air, spending next three days learning about some of the great Chassidic dynasties that originated there, and viewing firsthand the destruction wrought upon our nation at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek and Treblinka.

At Birkenau, standing in front of a pond with ashes of the kedoshim near the crematorium, Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, HAFTR’s principal, made a siyum in memory of Abe Scharf z”l and all of the six million kedoshim, H”yd.

In Majdanek, on the pit where thousands of men, women and children were murdered al Kiddush Hashem, once again a siyum was made and kaddish was recited by the grandson of one of the kedoshim who were murdered in Majdaniek.

At Treblinka, which the Nazis, ym”s, completely destroyed and attempted to turn it into a farm to hide evidence of their murder, another student spoke about her family members who were murdered in Treblinka and a siyum was made by Rabbi Boruch Oppen in memory of the kedoshim.

 In Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, a member of the group made a siyum on Masechta Yevamos, and in Krakow, on the day of her 81st yahrtzeit, the group visited the site of Rebbetzin Sarah Schenirer’s first Bais Yaakov, as well as her kever. Mrs. Yehudis Oppen addressed the group, sharing stories of inspiration and the importance of education for Jewish women.