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.