A Heavy Reminder, A Deeper Resolve by Dori Tabachnick

This morning, as I awoke, the emotions from yesterday overwhelmed me like a rising tide. We visited Dachau, and I am still processing what I saw there. Today, we are traveling to Nuremberg, where the Nazi party rallies once took place. I anticipated that this journey would be emotionally challenging, given the persistent presence of antisemitism throughout history, dating back to our ancestors’ enslavement in Mitzraim. Although I learned about the Holocaust in school and through stories, I was unprepared for the profound sadness and discomfort I experienced. As the bus got closer and closer to Dachau, I began to hold back tears that I knew would come regardless. Walking through the gates of the camp grounds the tears came. I am not a descendant of a holocaust survivor, but I am a descendant of antisemitism. I kept thinking why? Why did this happen? Why did this happen to us? Why do these horrific acts never end? Yes October 7 th was not the same as the Holocaust but it was still a massacre of our people. The deadliest attack on Jews in North America occurred at a synagogue where my uncle once served as president. After the Tree of Life shooting, my father appeared on the front page of the Washington Post, standing with a shovel over the gravestones of his friends, while my mother attended the trial of the perpetrator. As a result, security is heightened; what circumstances can we be comfortable living as a Jew without having to hide our Magen Davids? Antisemitism exists in extremities that the world does not wish to understand. We entered the crematorium in Dachau where Jews who died from forced labor, hunger, and shootings were burned to “eliminate the evidence”. Who can wrap their head around this, we were slaves in Egypt, we were slaves in Nazi occupied territory, we have been brutally beaten and murdered or marched to our deaths. What is the world doing to stop this insanity? Yes, there were good people who saved us, but that is not enough. Humanity needs to learn the level of what has happened and what will unfortunately continue to happen if antisemitism and hatred continues.