By Lior Tubul, Boarding School Director

The journey to Poland came at the end of an intensive learning process including visits to Yad Vashem and meeting Holocaust sorvivors.

The delegation included 120 boys from youth villages and was headed by the Hadassah Women and the head of delegation - Yossi Krothamer.

From Ben Yakir - we were a group of 15 boys and a young counselor. The journey began at the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw and at the next day - a visit to the factory for killing Jews (and not only) - Treblinka. Afterwards we visited the forest of Lopochova. Many trees, and a few places marked with a Jewish star, were Jewish children are buried in mass graves.

It was fascinating to see the process that the boys went through - with the highlight being in Auschwitz, after an incredible and spiritual Shabbat in Krakow. After the visit to the Jewish cabin and the reading of family members that died in the Holocaust, we continued with a march to Birkenau through the famous train entrance.

In every site we visited, we held a dignified ceremony by one of the villages - Hadassah Neurim, Kiriat Yearim, Ramat Hadassah, Ben Yakir and Meir Shfeia. Our boys took upon themselves the singing on Shabbat, D'var Torah and an impressive Havdala service.
 
The boys summed this journey by saying that they are coming back home very different. More understanding, more committed, and also more wanting to serve a meaningful service in the IDF in the future.