My unique journey to Auschwitz
When Professor Mohammed from Morocco asked me how I was feeling, I didn’t know what to answer.
And what can you say after watching tons of hair and shoes of Jewish prisoners, and huge pages filled with small, dense writing of millions of names of Jews who were perished.
Every word I choose will reduce the size of this hell. So I cried, and Muhammad understood and kept silent like I did.
The truth is, I never thought that a Moroccan Muslim would accompany me in my first moments in the land of Auschwitz.
But life is surprising.
Who knew that my decision not to join the trip to Poland with my 11th grade friends would turn out to be the right decision.
This is not only about precise timing, but also about the enormous hope that the Sharaka delegation brought for me as an Israeli Jew. Which is a hope and great news for the entire Middle East as well.
During organizing this delegation, in the moments of logistics, the conversation with the participants, and especially during the visit to Auschwitz and participation in the International March of the Living, I felt how all the participants – influential Muslims from Morocco, Bahrain, Israel and European Arabs, identify with this terrible pain.
And how could it not be. True, it is an event that mainly affected the Jewish people, but it is a human story. And it should go without saying.
But in today’s reality where Muslim countries do not teach the Holocaust at best cases, or deny it at worst – identification with this human pain is not understood at all. The courage of the participants to raise this hope is not taken for granted at all.
The understanding of this difficult reality was already expressed in the March of the Living, in the infinite amount of love that the delegation received from all the visitors. It also warmed the heart to see the excitement of Holocaust survivors witnessing a Muslim delegation raises the flag of Israel and the flag of Morocco on the land of Auschwitz, swear together “never again” – not for the Jewish people, and not for any person in this world.
Still digesting the mixture of sadness, pain, hope and joy that I experienced together with the participants and the good people with whom I organized the expedition.
Thanks for the privilege.
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