How did the United States and other countries respond to the Holocaust?
Alex: They responded different and in many ways with thoughts and ideas. Americans wanted to stay out of the war but eventually America had to enter the war.
Brittany: They did not react. They remained ignorant and focused on their own concerns.
Alicia: We did nothing and remained neutral.

What policies and actions did the Nazis implement to remove Jews and other “enemies of the state” from society and later to eliminate them?
Nikalis: They threatened to shoot them and they turned everyone against them.
Audra: They threatened them, used propaganda and got people to support their policies.
What role did newspapers, editorial cartoons, newsreels, radio have during the Holocaust?
Jessica: It provided information about what was going on in Germany and the killings that were about to happen.
Courtney: The media lied about the Jews.

In photographs you observe in the museum display what are bystanders and observers doing and what are they looking at?
Kayla: They were either just standing and staring, weeping and yelling, or laughing as people fell, were shot, burned, or taken away.
Stacy: The observers in some of the photos are looking at the camera. Some of them were looking heartbroken.
In what ways did the victims of the Holocaust respond to Nazi oppression/
Ricky: When Jews were taken away some resisted, but most did not fight back.
Raquel: They were scared but did not really do anything. When they were lined up to be shot they could do nothing.

What one thing do you remember most from the survivors testimony?
Alex: The fact that he survived. He was moved from ghetto to ghetto and camp to camp, attempted an escape but returned to find one sister who planned the escape, despite the fact he was shot in the head, only to find out she was killed in the attempt.
Alicia: I remember that the survivor said that he does not hate all Germans just the Nazis that killed his family.
Brittany: I remember he said he was just a regular kid, and he said that people could no longer be treated as the Jews were treated under the Nazis.
Nikalis: The one thing I remember most was when he talked about being shot and grazed in the head by a bullet.
Audra: I remembered when he said he never understood why his older sister was taken to the one room hospital because she had typhoid fever, instead of being selected (by the “einsatzgrupen”- killing squads). She was left to suffer and die and die alone.
Jessica: He said that one brother and one sister were the only survivors out of his family (of nine brothers and sisters and his parents).
Courtney: When the war ended he was 17.
Kayla: I remember him telling us how horrible the hygiene and sleeping conditions were, with the lice and never having your haircut, and sleeping 3 people to a 50 inch wide bunk and not showering for four years.
Stacy: What I heard from the Holocaust survivor which was amazing to me was that his brother is 99 and will be 100 and is his only surviving sibling now out of 8 others.
Ricky: He went through a lot – suffering, loss of family, being starved- at such a young age.
Raquel: He was taken care of really poorly. He was not given enough food, no proper clothing, no bedding, no mattress. He lived on very little. He received a little bread and a cup of cabbage water .

What is one thing you learned at the RAC?
Alex: Working on environmental issues – volunteering on cleaning up.
Brittany: We have power to make a difference and change things we think are wrong.
Alicia: The two guys (legislative advocates for the RAC) are AWESOME!!! They helped me realize that you and other people need to speak up and take the lead.
Nikalis: We met two young men today and they said always find out where things are made before or after you buy them.
Audra: I learned that I can do something. Even though I am young I can help. I can make a difference.
Jessica: I learned from RAC about the problems around the world that need and should be changed world hunger, child labor in sweat shops.
Courtney: Not everyone’s life is as good as ours. Donating food to homeless shelters, the need for clean water for a lot of people are two things.
Stacy: From Sam and David I heard and learned that working on everyday things can make a big difference.
Ricky: You can do anything you put your mind to no matter what your age.
Kayla: I learned from our trip to the RAC that a good way to get involved in fighting for human rights is through your church.
Raquel: There is so much we can do to help the world. Look at the way we eat and work to deal with the issue of obesity.

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It was another early day, not as early as Thursday but still an early rising and off to the train station for downtown Washington D.C. Today was our day for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where we would first be with and listen to the witness of a survivor, Henry Greenbaum (Chuna Grynbaum). He was born in Poland, the town of Starachowice, 1 April 1928. He was 11 years old at the out break of the war. He was one of nine children. In 1940 the family was forced to move into the ghetto. Henry and his sisters worked in a munitions factory. They remained together until 1942. At this time Henry and three of his sisters were separated from the rest of the family who were taken to Treblinka – an extermination camp – but Henry and two sisters were selected for a labor camp. His one sister planned an escape during which she was killed and Henry wounded. His two other sisters perished from typhoid and dysentery in the camp. Henry was moved to a sub-camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and worked at the I.G. Farben Company. He was then force marched to Flossenberg near the Czech border and then sent toward Dachau on a death march and was rescued by an American tank commander. He searched for family. He knew he had an older sister in the United States who had immigrated before the war. He was taken care of by a cousin who found Henry’s brother Zachary who had been imprisoned in the Vilna ghetto. He and Zachary came to the United States in 1946 and were met by another brother, David, who had escaped and came to the US in 1941 because of the efforts of the Japanese ambassador who had papers forged for Jews before the outbreak of war with the United States. Henry’s only surviving sibling, David, will be 100 in 2011.

Henry’s experience in the camps were harsh. A small piece of bread and a bowl of cabbage “soup”. He said they were given a spoon but he could never figure out why. That perhaps it was the Germans playing a cruel joke on them because the soup was merely cabbage water. His one sister died of typhoid. He talked about the Einsatzgrupen (death squads) coming through the labor camp and removing the workers who were ill and taking them out and killing them in the large ditches which the workers were forced to dig. They were told they were digging tank traps but in reality they were digging their own graves. He visited his sister in the labor camp, finding rags to soften her bed because she had bed sores. However when he came one day she was gone – taken he was told. He came to find out she was taken to a so called hospital and left alone to die painfully in a room without any care.
After asking questions, the students were given some questions to explore in the exhibits. We then left the Holocaust Museum and headed to the Israeli Embassy where they met with a member of the embassy staff and talked about Israel –from cell phone technology to conflicts.

After a late lunch it was off to the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism in the US where two young men – David and Sam – involved the students in an exercise to show how, by looking at everyday things they do can offer opportunities to work with others for making the world a better place for others, how they can work with others whose faith is different, with others you may not agree with on certain issues but share similar concerns on other issues.

After a full day it was time for dinner at the Hard Rock Café and then a train ride to the Washington Mall area – not to shop – but to see the various memorials. It was a long day filled with sights and sounds and words and ideas, and finally some rest.

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