News

We Are Still Here: Traveling to Poland with Hillel

Author

Jordan Kekst

Date

January 24, 2025

University of Miami student Jordan Kekst recently traveled to Poland with other Jewish students as part of a trip organized by the Hillels of Florida, including University of Miami Hillel, Hillel at Florida International University, University of Florida Hillel, , Hillel at Florida State University, Central Florida Hillel, and . This powerful reflection from his trip was originally published on the University of Miami Hillel Instagram page, and we are honored to share it ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.聽

I am an architecture student at the University of Miami, originally from Los Angeles. While I do not have a personal family connection to the Holocaust, I have always felt a deep responsibility to remember and honor those who were lost. This trip was an opportunity to witness history firsthand and better understand the impact of the Shoah, the Holocaust, beyond textbooks and museums.

Standing in Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II: Birkenau, Majdanek, and Treblinka, we walked the same paths where millions were forced to endure unspeakable cruelty. We saw the barracks designed as stables where Jews lived in inhumane conditions for years, the gas chambers where they were murdered, and the crematoriums where their remains were discarded without dignity. 

The scale of the Holocaust was incomprehensible, but it was the details, the bales of hair, the piles of glasses worn by Jews just like me, the faint echoes of lives once lived, that was truly shattering. 

One moment that has stayed with me is walking into the Yad Vashem exhibit at Auschwitz I, where videos and photos of Holocaust victims were played, showing them laughing, spending time with loved ones, and simply living their lives. Seeing their faces and joy in a place where they were murdered made the loss feel deeply personal. It was there that I truly grasped the sheer scale of the Holocaust, not just as statistics or numbers, but as unfathomable human tragedies. The weight of that realization has stayed with me every day, serving as a reminder that behind every number were stories, families, and entire worlds violently cut short, never to be fully known.

Bearing witness to their pain felt like both a responsibility and an obligation. I imagined myself in their positions. How would I have felt? What would I have done?

Yet along with this intense mourning, there was also light. As we traveled through Krakow, Lublin, Warsaw, and Kazimierz, our kehilah (community) found moments of connection, joy, and even laughter. We sang together, shared stories, and leaned on each other for support on long bus rides and in group discussions. 

This balance of grief and levity felt profoundly Jewish; tapping into a tradition that intertwines joy and sorrow, honoring the past while finding reasons to celebrate life and our combined strength.

This trip reminded me of the resilience of the Jewish people. For every life taken, there are communities that refuse to let their memory fade. For every moment of despair, there is a spark of hope. Our group left Poland bonded, not only by the weight of history, but by the shared strength of our identity.  

We are still here. We remember. We carry their stories forward. Never again. 

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