MDA israel

The twenty five-strong delegation visited in the concentration and death camps in Krakow, Auschwitz - Birkenau, Maidanek, Warsaw and Treblinka among others. The MDA youth volunteers also visited other historical sites in Poland, such as the Rappaport Monument, the Broken Heart Monument, the synagogue in Tykocin, the Great Synagogue in Nozyk and others. One of the delegation members, Itamar Harit, a 17 year old volunteer from Kiryat Ono, accompanied the ceremonies with the violin. 

Arbel Cohen, 17, a youth volunteer from Efrat wrote about the experience in the Lopuchowo Forest: "Just here, as I sit beneath the tall, bare trees, do I understand how the very obvious isn't obvious at all. We can hear the quiet. The birds tweet, and the rain falls steadily. The branches break beneath our feet with each step that we take. It's only as I sit here, between the trenches, that I understand that how the obvious isn't obvious at all. The heart beats, I hold my breath. One step, another. How none of it can be taken for granted. The flag of the State of Israel, the flag of Magen David Adom. One over my shoulder and one on my chest."

Or Nazrian, 18, a youth volunteer from Moshav Ge'a shared her feelings when she arrived at the children's cemetery in Kielce: "The mass grave is the one thing that we saw that broke me more than anything else. It was filled with toys and children's drawings, and of course - names. I don't think that there's any way to explain how it feels or the significance of seeing a mass grave with toys. We were each flooded with memories, as we tried to comprehend what we were seeing and hearing." 

Snir Fainshtein, manager of online education in Magen David Adom, accompanied the youth volunteers through the camps: "On the last day of the mission, we arrived at Auschwitz - Birkenau, and as we stood outside the hut filled with the horrors performed by Mengele, we read the Doctor's Oath. To see the symbol of Magen David Adom, a symbol that represents life and aid to others, as it was being worn proudly by our volunteers in a place where so many were killed just for being Jewish, was a very significant and emotional moment. We as Israelis, as Jews, must be grateful each and every day for the freedom to live our lives in our own State. It is vital that we never stop teaching the price of this freedom, how important it is to maintain, and how important it is to remain a strong and unified nation."

MDA Director General, Eli Bin: "It is incumbent on each and every one of us to keep the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Despite the fact that what can be seen in Poland today can barely begin to describe what the generation of the Shoah experienced, there is no doubt that the youth delegations have a vital educational value for Israeli youth, who must remember and never forget. MDA, as a life saving and humanitarian organization here in Israel has set itself the aim of ensuring to teach the youth that we must never stand silently when there are horrors occurring around us."