MDA Youth Volunteers Journey Through Jewish History in Poland
This deeply significant humanitarian mission allowed 30 Magen David Adom (MDA) youth volunteers from across Israel to trace the footsteps of Jewish history in Poland
The delegation visited concentration and extermination camps including Treblinka, Majdanek, Plaszow, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as memorial sites such as the Jewish cemetery in Kielce where 45 children were murdered.
As with previous missions, the MDA delegation conducted a special commemorative ceremony at Block 10 in Auschwitz, where Nazi physicians performed experiments on Jewish prisoners. This powerful experience deeply affected the young volunteers who serve in an organization dedicated to preserving life.
Daniel Harit, an MDA youth volunteer and first aid provider, shared: "There were many powerful, emotional, and sad moments during the journey, but the ceremony we conducted at Auschwitz touched me the most. Standing in a place where physicians used their professional knowledge to cause suffering is a terrible feeling. As a youth volunteer with MDA, an organization that sanctifies life and saving lives, I felt the true meaning behind the delegation – to remember and tell the Holocaust stories and always act for life."
Nicole Beizer, an MDA youth first aid provider from Beer Sheva, participated with personal connections to this history: "It was important for me to join this journey to better understand what happened to the Jewish people. My great-grandfather served in the Red Army and, according to our family stories, helped liberate camps. Seeing this reality firsthand was very challenging. It's difficult to comprehend that such things actually happened. This journey matured me. My older brother Nick, who fell during Operation Iron Swords, wanted so much to participate in a Poland journey but never had the chance. I felt I was doing this for him too."
Hagai Kolton, MDA volunteer coordinator who accompanied the youth delegation, emphasized: "The journey to Poland is an important experience for our collective memory as Jewish people. Youth who come to Poland and stand on this ground, which carries enormous amounts of pain and history, are the next generation who will ensure we always remember and never forget."
MDA Director General Eli Bin: "Nothing today, neither in Poland nor anywhere else, can illustrate or develop one's imagination about the terrible atrocities that actually occurred during the Holocaust. Nevertheless, MDA delegations, both adults and youth, go every year to absorb what little they can and at least arrive equipped with Israeli flags on Polish soil and at places where millions of Jews perished.
There is no doubt that this is proper and necessary education for generations of Israeli youth, who must remember and not forget. MDA, as a life-saving organization that serves as Israel's most significant humanitarian organization, sets itself the goal of teaching young people that we must not stand silent in the face of atrocities occurring around us."
