[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

London – June 26 2016 – Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu together with his Rebbetzin and Kehilla members took a four day journey retracing the steps of millions of Jews who died al pi Kiddush Hashem in the Holocaust.

Joined by 50 members, men and women of the Beis Medrash Beis Yisroel, Dayan Ehrentreu was accompanied by Holocaust expert and JLE lecturer Rabbi Aubrey Hersh and reknowned Israel educator, Rabbi Yossi Cohen.

The trip included visits to the Warsaw Ghetto, Yeshivas Chochmei Lublin, Krakow, many kevorim of tsaddikim, Madanek and Auschwitz-Birkeneau concentration camps. In highlighting the juncture between life before, during and after the war, Rabbis Hersh and Cohen provided historical and anecdotal narrative to the trip, helping participants to understand the full extent of the loss suffered and present day triumph of the Torah world today.

Met by Rabbi Michael Shudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, on the first day visit to the Nożyk synagogue, the kehilla davened mincha at the shul and made the trek through the Warsaw gravestones to the ohel of Volozhin-Brisk, amongst others. This was followed by an overnight stay and shiurim for the participants at the famous Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, an everlasting testament to the investment made by the Torah generation before the war and Rabbi Meir Schapiro zt”l, who established Daf Yomi. In an interview that Rabbi Meir Shapiro (1887-1933) gave to the Jewish Chronicle when he was in London on August 29, 1924, he was quoted as saying, “I have come to this country solely and exclusively in the interests of the Lublin World Yeshiva, which is destined to be a tower of strength to Polish Jewry and a perennial source of spiritual visibility to all Israel. I confidently hope that British Jewish will participate to the full in the erection of this historic epoch making institution.” Members on this trip felt a full circle of fortified spiritual building in being present at this illustrious institution of Torah.

With a dynamic itinerary contrasting growth of Torah and the destruction of a holy nation, participants saw Krakow in both extremes. Visiting the first Beis Yaakov school built by Rebbetzin Sarah Schenirer, and the eponymous legacy she established for Jewish girls worldwide to the tangible horrors of the ghettos and death camps, which were all but obliterated and masked by overgrowth and absence of any memorial, spare the odd street sign marking the space.

Rabbi Aubrey Hersh said, “This was a trip where people were able to appreciate the Torah of the last 500 years in Poland, where they were able to see the places of destruction and where they were able to understand the mesiras nefesh of those who lived through those dark days.”

In a distinctly moving midnight visit to Zbylitowska Gora, outside Tarnow, participants walked the deep forest path where 800 Jewish children were dragged from their beds and murdered in a mass grave. Candles were lit and Kaddish was said, supported by a number of inspiring talks by the educators at hand.

One of the participants, Nicky Rosenthal, remarked, “Amidst barking dogs and thick darkness we followed the footsteps of so many who were lead to their death. The aged, the women, the families and most tragically those innocent children. Feeling the sheer magnitude of the frightening walk as an adult, the thought of the unknowing children has left a lifelong, deep and painful memory. I will never forget, not only the tragedy and the sacrifice, but also the realisation of the precious gift Hakodosh Barachu has given us… our children and our future.” Mr Rosenthal and his wife took the opportunity to make a unique brocha in Auschwitz, thanking Hakodosh Boruch Hu for their respective grandparents’ survival in the camps, a miracle and an indelible moment of gratitude.

The final stop on the trip to Auschwitz-Birkeneau completed a mentally and physically exhausting journey for the week, the irony of which was not lost on the participants. In the blistering sun, traversing the infamous train tracks leading to the barracks at Birkeneau, members of the kehilla took over three hours to tread the imprint of the millions of Jews who suffered and died in the sweltering heat and freezing winters. After examining the ruins that were bombed before the Allies entered the camp, participants stared down into the abyss of the underground gas chambers, speechless and only imagining the horror. Observing the 12 steps leading into the gas chamber, where millions of Jews were sent to their immediate deaths, one participant stood at the entrance only 2 meters behind the barbed wire leading to the forest and potential freedom. He turned back to the steps and remarked, “Gateway to Gan Eden, indeed.”

Concluding the visit, the Dayan delivered an emotional tribute on his first visit to Auschwitz, where he located the members of his family in the museum’s Book of Names on display. His very personal speech, often punctuated by a halting break and tears in his voice, reflected on the immense loss and atrocities which befell the Jewish people, the Dayan evoked the memory of one of the Asarei Harugei Malchus and Reb Chanina ben Teradion, who died at the hands of the Romans by being slowly burnt alive in a Torah scroll. The Dayan spoke and said, “The past two nights it was difficult to sleep – it is unbelievable that our achienu bnei Yisroel should’ve gone through such a Gehenom. Yet, the Ribbono Shel Olam has His drochim and we don’t question because Hakodosh Boruch Hu is the source of goodness and whatever He does is the Hatava whether we understand it or not. The Romans had exterminated Yidden in a cruel way, srefus of Gedolim. The talmidim asked Reb Chanina ben Teradion, “How do you see the future for Klal Yisroel? How can we survive?” He remarked to his students, ‘Gvilim nisrafim aval osios porchos’ – The parchment is burning but the letters are flying. Something materialistic can be exterminated and destroyed but the spirit of Torah is immortal, you can’t extinguish it, you can’t destroy it, it will last and it will come back again. We’ve seen horrors and we’ve witnessed what happened here. We’ve heard about Belsen, Auschwitz, Madanek, Dachau, Birkeneau… but to see b’chush places and simonim that these things actually happened and that Yidden actually had to go through this and some even survived. It is unbelievable. But the Germans thought they could destroy Klal Yisroel, gvilim nisrofim. Boruch Hashem after the war, we saw Torah growing in Europe, in America, in Israel. And Reb Chanina’s statement was a promise to us.” With these words, the Dayan recited a heartbreaking Kaddish for the six million joined by his kehilla.

The achdus created in the congregation by this trip was palpable and every participant felt the neshomos of past joining them, encouraged by the closeness of the Dayan and the Rebbetzin to forge a more unified future for the next generation.

Organiser Moshe Morris remarked, “What made this trip so memorable and exceptional was being with the Dayan and Rebbetzen when they experienced for their first time how European Jewry was destroyed, particularly seeing the various concentration camps. Their spontaneous emotional reaction, the Dayan’s various droshas on the power of tefilah and words of chizuk for the future, were highly inspirational and unique.”

Future historical trips for the Beis Yisroel kehilla are planned.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)