Holocaust Remembrance Day: Poland Pilgrims Face Magnitude of Death Camps, Today's Hamas Horrors

LUBLIN, MIEDZYRZEC, and TREBLINKA, Poland – Israel is commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day this year on May 6^th against the backdrop of the October 7th massacre.   

Although the scale was smaller, it brought many back to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust and many Israelis felt the spirit was the same.

Shortly before the current war began, CBN News visited the site of Poland's Treblinka death camp and the city of Lublin, where the Nazis ruled the country in the Second World War.

One part of Lublin became known as the German SS city due to the black-uniformed Nazi's presence here.

David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church in Jerusalem, leads the Narrow Bridge historical tours of Poland, focusing on areas where the Jewish community lived and prospered for a thousand years and then the Holocaust happened.

He told CBN News, "It was from here (in Lublin) that they planned the murder of over two million Polish Jews. These were the desk murderers – people who were bureaucrats, secretaries, planners, junior officers. They arranged, for this murder to take place, and they were equally, if not more responsible, than those who actually did the physical killing."

From here, SS squads would organize train timetables, dispatch killing units to Jewish towns, or round up Jews to eventually be sent to one of Poland's death camps.

"Poland became the place of death because this is where most Jews in Europe lived. They lived in Poland, Central Europe, Eastern Europe. So this was simply a matter of convenience and logistics," Pileggi stated.

One example is today a beautiful town square in Miedzyrzec, about 65 miles from Lublin, where the Nazis forced the Jewish people to come, stand, and wait for the train to take them to Treblinka.

From the surrounding villages, trains would transport tens of thousands of Jews through the woods to their ultimate destination of death.

The Treblinka death camp was only in operation for 15 months, but during that time, the Nazis murdered 925,000 Jews there.

Australian visitor Marion Sully told us, "I've known about the word Treblinka for many, many years." But she insists just being aware of this history isn't enough.

"And to be here now is to be really impacted, she said. "It's probably the hardest thing that I need to do, is to acknowledge how evil and wicked men can become. Just not men, but women and, it could even happen so, to anyone."

Kay Harris from Seattle, Washington, agreed. "Just the impact of how people who are just common, ordinary people can be so cold – for so long. And it's just shocking and horrifying, and I think about the day that we live in and how parallel this could be to our time today," Harris declared.

Teresa Gardner, director of Zion Center for Worship and the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina, noted, "You can hear the numbers, but when you begin to understand the individuals, it impacts you in a whole different way and you realize – again – what was behind this evil, this destruction, the deception; and sadly and very disconcertingly, I believe we see some of those same things in the world today."

That's why Gardner points to the example of Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jewish pediatrician who refused sanctuary to instead go to Treblinka with children from the Warsaw orphanage that he ran.

“I teach children, so I pray I would be like that," Gardner said. "I pray that I would be faithful to the Lord to the end and be faithful in the responsibilities that he's given to me."

Tod McDowell, executive director of Caleb Global in Nashville, Tennessee, and his wife Rachel believe that walking where it all happened deepened their perspective. 

"I had met many Holocaust survivors and have heard their stories, but to actually step onto the ground where it took place, and I think it took me off guard," Rachel explained. "Just the emotions I would feel, like I wasn't expecting, just to feel so deeply. I didn't expect to feel such peace there amongst such a horrible, horrific tragedy that happened in that place – so, it was such a mixture."

Tod Mc Dowell told us, "It broke my heart, and I could feel the Father's heart. Broken.  I realized why I came on this trip is, I've known prophetic scriptures, I've known history, I've learned, I've seen some films on the Holocaust, but my dozens and dozens of times to Israel has been so focused on the flowers that came out of the ashes, the Holocaust. I realized I'm missing half of the story – of the Jewish story – because I've never seen the ashes."

McDowell says in today's culture, unfortunately, it can be easier to be talked out of something you think you know.

"So, I just think coming here and seeing the evidence touching the wall today of the ghetto, walking on the tracks, seeing the evidence that was found and being there, you know that you know, because you've experienced it," McDowell said.

Brad H. Young, a Bible translator from the Hebrew Heritage Bible Society, came away astonished by how fast and efficiently the Nazis implemented their Final Solution.

"So, when you go to a place like Treblinka and you understand how – that this result of hatred of the Jewish people can result in mass murder – sometimes it can be, abusive words that are said that build up until we see the implementation of the Final Solution," Young related.

He believes that even in the face of growing anti-Semitism, Christians should do as it says in the book of Isaiah and comfort God's people.