Day 1 - Chad Rayd

Today was our first day of our trip. We started off switching from plane A380 to the plane that would take us to Warsaw. We landed in Warsaw and there was a great atmosphere surrounding us: part excited, part nervous, part scared. 

We got spilt into 3 groups and we then got onto the bus that would become our home for the next week. We then drove to a stop station where we ate lunch and got our March Of The Living backpacks and jackets. 

We then went on a 2 hour trip to the Łódź cemetery. Here we were showen graves of people with very interesting, sad and brave stories. 

For example, Sarah Plager-zasking, who was only 11 when the war started. She and her parents lived in the Łódź ghetto. Because of the sanity problems in the ghetto, her mother fell ill and died. Everyday on the way to school, she would pass her mother’s grave and say a prayer. Her father became ill as well due to malnutrition, hunger and starvation. She went to a doctor who lived next door to her and asked him what she could do. He said you need to get this specific medicine. The problem was that the clinic in the ghetto only gave 25 bottles of this medicine out per day. She was only 12 at the time. In order to buy the medicine, she worked in the factories in the ghettos (this was the reason for the Łódź ghetto) in order to earn money. One morning she woke up at 4:00 am in order to be first in line to get this medicine. We she arrived at the clinic there was 5 people in front of her already. Because she was so small, people would push in front of her. She landed up number 26 in the line. As she tried to walk though the doors, they closed the door on her face. She through a tantrum, screaming and crying. Finally the doctor came out and gave her the medicine. She then went home and gave her father the medicine. This helped her father tremendously however he fell sick again and died. She survived the war. After the war finished, she came back to the place where her father was buried and gave him a proper tombstone. 

This story stood out to me as it showed how hard life was in the ghetto and how teenagers our age, had lived completely different lives to us. 

We then went to our hotel to check in and shower. We then went out for dinner which was a great way for us to bond and create a sense of strength that we could rely on. 

We then came back to the hotel to have a debrief session. This was a day filled with excitement, sadness and laughter.