P2K - Shoah Experience to Poland and Israel
Personal Experiences
Personal Experiences
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in Partnership 2000. It was amazing to be involved with a group of 70 Jewish children from South Africa and Israel.
I always believed in the fact that the Holocaust really did happen - it was just another horrendous part of our History. This tour made me understand and appreciate that it was REAL, and that these atrocities were perpetrated against very ordinary people, just like you and me, because they were Jewish. Something that was always theory suddenly has a very real, physical presence. It was a visual, practical experience not just learning from a text book.
I can never get it out of my mind, that wherever I walked, or whatever I saw, this could have been my Mom, my Dad, my sister, my brother and my Gran. It could have been me, walking along those railway platforms, being herded like cattle into the gas chambers. My skin crawls at the memories I have of the death camps, but I keep on imagining the pain and the fear that the victims experienced.
It was an uplifting experience and one that has made me feel prouder of my heritage, my roots and my religion.
Gary Bernstein
I always believed in the fact that the Holocaust really did happen - it was just another horrendous part of our History. This tour made me understand and appreciate that it was REAL, and that these atrocities were perpetrated against very ordinary people, just like you and me, because they were Jewish. Something that was always theory suddenly has a very real, physical presence. It was a visual, practical experience not just learning from a text book.
I can never get it out of my mind, that wherever I walked, or whatever I saw, this could have been my Mom, my Dad, my sister, my brother and my Gran. It could have been me, walking along those railway platforms, being herded like cattle into the gas chambers. My skin crawls at the memories I have of the death camps, but I keep on imagining the pain and the fear that the victims experienced.
It was an uplifting experience and one that has made me feel prouder of my heritage, my roots and my religion.
Gary Bernstein
