The March of the Living program I was privileged to take part in was different from those routinely attended by high school students. We accompanied forty educators, men and women who wanted to see and learn first hand of the horrible history of the Holocaust. None of the participants found it to be an easy experience. During the very compact week they were subjected to sights that never fail to shock even the most 
hardened individual. From the visit of the Warsaw cemetery to the heart breaking remains of the one time Warsaw Ghetto we continued to the death camps of Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. They saw with their own eyes the unbelievable, listened to the unthinkable, trying to take in and cope with the appalling cruelty that unfolded in the heart of Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Tough as it was, it was enormously beneficial for their future teaching careers. The week provided them with knowledge they will share with their students and they carry the message much better, because they had first hand exposure to the tragic Jewish past.
For me, the survivor, participating on this yearly routine, to revisit 60 years later the places of our tragedy, was a painful event. The wounds that never healed reopen, bringing back an avalanche of memories. As I stood at the gates of Auschwitz I remembered the many relatives and friends who entered this infernal place. Their faces are still young, frozen in time, robbed of their dreams, hopes and years of life on this earth. Though it happened eons ago, to me it seemed to have unfolded only yesterday.
Later I entered the barrack in Auschwitz proper that commemorates the Czech-Jewish tragedy. I have to admit that I went in with great trepidation. The museum honors the past, tells the story of the Czech Jews and displays portraits of some. And sure enough, there from the walls of the museum looked at me the faces of many friends and acquaintances with whom we spent years in Theresienstadt. There, still hopeful to outlive the Nazi scourge, we shared not only our meager rations but also our dreams hoping for a better future. For most it was not to come. One by one I remember them, the serious faces of the men who formed the Council of the Elders, the many talented artists but above all the children of Theresienstadt, who were then my contemporaries. So much hope and talent lost, if only they could have lived they world would have been a better place.
The intensity of the pain surprised me. I hoped that time healed some of it, but I was wrong. The scar tissue overlays thinly the wound, that can never become whole again. The Shoah carved a deep hole in our hearts, from which the blood trickles, even if we are unaware of it. Why did they have to die, where did all this hatred come from? I guess we will never have the answers. I am thankful that those I loved and all those who perished are not forgotten and than mankind will honor their innocent suffering.
The March of the Living only reinforced my resolve to share my experiences with the interested public. If we are truly serious about “Never Again” we have to do our utmost to prevent repetition of the dreadful past.
Upon my return I decided to publish the diary of my late mother who perished in Theresienstadt. The two tiny booklets to date kept private, represent her way to cope. Her entries talk about the day-by-day pain and despair. I believe that her own words speak volumes about the life of an inmate in Theresienstadt. Perhaps her sparse sentences illustrate best the misery of coping in the “Model Ghetto Theresienstadt”.
I believe that the March of the Living should become a yearly event for educators and teachers, for many years to come. If there is hope for mankind, it is to teach what can happen when evil is afforded a free reign.
Vera Schiff has published three books about her experiences during the Holocaust. The first, Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews was published in 1996 and received a Jewish Book Award, the second Hitler's Inferno: Eight Intimate Histories of the Holocaust was published in 2002, and in 2005 she published Letters to Veruska: A Theresienstadt Diary. Her website is www.veraschiff.com
