I’ve stood in many special places. I’ve hiked up mountains to stand on summits. I’ve stood in Notre Dame to see the pinnacle of medieval architecture. I’ve walked the streets of the old city in Jerusalem, pressed my head against the Kotel and felt the presence of Hashem. Today, I walked through the Majdanek concentration camp.
Majdanek is not a monument in stone like Treblinka. Majdanek still has the gas chambers where my people were killed and the barracks where tens of thousands dwelled in squalor. Majdanek is where the foundation for the road is crushed headstones from Jewish cemeteries. It is the crematorium where the gassed bodies were burned and the mass grave of 18,400 Jews who were shot in a single day.
Today I walked the paths of a concentration camp. I stood where mothers refused to be separated from their children. I was barely able to stand in front of 400,000 pairs of shoes. Then, standing under a mausoleum, in front of the ashes of the victims, I said Kaddish and cried.
Journey to Poland 
Very moving. Thank you for sharing these meaningful reflections.
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