Poland Trip Midreshet Lindenbaum 2013: One Small Flame

Zbilitovska Gura, Poland

When we got off the bus, we were told that we would be walking to a forest. A chill ran through me. I knew what this meant. Another mass grave.

When we arrived, a huge monument dominated the landscape. There were three fenced off areas, two blue and one white. Rav Brown explained that the blue fences areas were Jewish mass graves and the white one was a Polish mass grave. It's very uncommon for this to happen. We were given candles to place by the graves and matches to light them with. The following is what occurred when I went to go light the candles by each of the fenced off areas. There are no embellishments.

Annie and I collected enough candles for each of us to light one at each pit and approached the first gravesite. We placed the candles next to each other and I struck the match. I lit my candle and then Annie used my flame to light hers. While her flame burned bright and strong, mine flickered and struggled to stay lit. Annie and I cupped our hands around the candle and tried to coax the flame to a big enough size so that it would stay lit on its own. The cold wind was strong and it didn't look like the flame would stay lit. Yet despite all odds, the small flame continued to glow. I couldn't believe my eyes. The weak flame stubbornly continued to burn. I couldn't help but think that this was a perfect representation of Am Yisrael during the Shoah.

Next we walked to the Polish grave. We weren't really sure what to do. It didn't seem appropriate to say a perek of tehilim here as we did at the other grave because this one had a huge cross on it. We decided that a song was most appropriate. We sang together quietly after we lit out candles and then moved onto the last grave.

The last grave was filled with yortzeit candles. There were also many clay animals and stuffed toys surrounding the grave. We knew this must have been in honor of the 800 children who were brutally murdered here. I couldn't help but try to envision their faces: bright, open, trusting, pure, hopeful. In a single moment all of their dreams were taken away from them. This place was appropriately given the name יער הילדים- the forest of children- in their honor.

The group gathered again in front of one of the Jewish graves. We sang וזקני לגדל together and I couldn't think of how cruel it was how these people's lives were torn away from them. They would not merit to raise generations because they died before they even had the opportunity to live.

Entrance to the Forest