1. Whenever someone today tells me the Holocaust doesn’t exist, I explain how I saw the nail scratches in the gas chambers or the pile of ashes.

2. Visiting the concentration camps had the most impact on me because my Zaida survived the Holocaust and I know that he was in those exact places years before. That made me realize even more how hard it was for him.

3. After we exited the gas chambers at Majdanek, we all got together as a group and we just held each other as a group. we prayed and lit candles, and it is something that I will never forget.

4. I remember going to the concentration camps and seeing the scratches on the walls of the gas chambers. I vividly remember the march itself. As well on our way to a site, we saw this one random grave site. It was an unknown site that was not part of the trip. However a local came and told us what had happened, and Jews had been killed in the forest, and this was the site. We sang mourning prayers and it was unexpected that in the middle of the road, on the way to a concentration camp, we would discover another atrocity.

5. The rows of ovens at Majdanek and the huge dome of ashes are so appalling…all deniers should be forced to walk thru this camp.

6. Walking thought Majdanek, it finally hit me what I was now a witness to and I really started to wonder what had happened to my missing family.

7. The concentration camps really hit home. I had been learning about them all my life and it really impacted me when I was standing where everything I had studied happened. I will never forget when our survivor, David, told his story in Auschwitz.

8. I will always remember sitting on the steps of the barracks in Auschwitz listening to the survivor on my trip tell his story with tears in his eyes and emotion in his cracking voice as he pointed to specific spots where certain events in his past had occurred. That memory has stayed with me since the moment it occurred and will follow me for the rest of my life.

9. My trip had the opportunity to visit a Jewish school in Warsaw which was amazing. I enjoyed seeing that Jewish life was beginning to flourish in Poland again.

10. The most lasting impression I had in Poland was the reaction of those around me during our visit to Auschwitz. The tears and pain in their eyes stay with me to this day and will for many more years.

11. I will never forget what I saw and heard in Poland and it has impacted me the last three years. The most powerful moment for me was being at Auschwitz with my survivor (Sally) whose grandson surprised her that morning in Warsaw to be there with her when she saw the camp for the first time. It solidified to me the important of family, of faith and of combating current and future genocides.

12. The most lasting impact for me I think, was standing in the monument that now stands where the trains would stop at the ghetto to take people away. I knew that that was the last spot of “freedom” some people ever had. Also, walking down streets, through the camps, everywhere really, someone could have died there. The camps were incredibly emotional, but I know that I would jump at the opportunity of experiencing that again. It is so important to remember everything, and I know that I personally can still remember almost everything about the camps.

13. We were at the Yeshiva in Lublin shortly after visiting Majdanek and the entire group was feeling down after the visit. It was Friday, Shabbat was approaching and we started dancing and singing in the Yeshiva and it was very uplifting and hopeful. It felt like the phrase“Jewish people live” was coming true in front of our eyes.

14. We visited an old graveyard on our first day. The name escapes me at the moment, however I remember the rows upon rows of headstones and the knowledge that it was so packed, that people were buried on top of one another. Then knowing such a large Jewish community was once there is now gone was incredibly sad.

15. The experience that had the most impact on me was going to the Sobibor concentration camp. We stood in front of the ashes of thousands of Jews and held a small ceremony in memory of the victims.

16. There is so much explanation I want to give as answers for my questions, but I’ll just put down a few. Having Rabbi Black on the trip was the most influential. He instilled meaning into everything, and turned the trip from a depressing remembrance of the past, to an inspiring and meaningful present and future. He gave the trip the most valuable component, the G-d factor. I know many people from over the years and from my own trip who feel the exact same way. David Solomon was also amazing, and the poem about shoes that he read us in Majdanek had a tremendous impact on me. I’m still in touch with him. All the singing that was done in Poland..basically all the inspiration and messages of rebirth and commitment to the unbelievable Jewish people, our Torah, and our Loving Father in Heaven were the best aspects of Poland. And Shabbos in Poland was incredible.

17. The concentration camps and the ghettos had the most lasting effect on me then and it still does today. I still think back to the camps and how I felt and what I felt when I was there. It will stay with me forever. It changed the way I truly look at anti-Semitism and the ignorance people have to all races and ethnicities. Having a survivor on the trip also had a huge impact on the way I experienced the camps and the entire trip. It makes it a whole lot more personal.

18. After visiting a concentration camp the “tough guy” on our bus was the first to break down which shocked us all and put most of us into tears.

19. I think a ton of people, when the thought crosses their mind to go on this trip, they often quickly throw it because they think it will be too hard to handle and simply too depressing but this isn’t the case. The trip is, of course depressing at times, as it should be, but the many fun times I had with the people on the trip made the depressing moments more bearable and more important. The moment that had the most lasting impression on me was both sad and happy like many moments on the trip. After the actually March of the Living in Poland and after the ceremony, one of our survivors, Sally Wasserman, spoke to the group.

She read a letter her mother had sent to her Aunt living in Canada before she passed away, knowing her fate. It was terribly sad but she finished her speech by referencing a line from her mother’s letter, that being that the revenge her mother knew we’d have was simply surviving and Sally said that the “sweet, sweet revenge” she was talking about was simply being there with us at Auschwitz over 60 years later, with Jewish children, many of whichhave come from Holocaust survivors like herself. Her last words were happy and it was then that the real importance of being there on this trip, as depressing as it may be at times, really sank in.

20. [The moment with the most impact in Poland] was in Auschwitz, all delegations congregated and everyone was waving their Israeli flags and singing Ani Maamin.

21. [The most impactful moments from the trip were} were walking through Auschwitz with the survivors and listening to their stories while standing in the barracks where they had lived. Also, the actual March with thousands of Jews from all over the world coming to gather to march through the streets of Poland near Auschwitz as happy, free individuals.

22. The year that I went, I was chosen with a few other participants from Toronto, to lead the march from Auschwitz to Birkenau and carry the March of the Living banner. It was an incredible honour. We had to stop every once and awhile to wait while everyone caught up, and to look back and see everyone in their blue March of the Living jackets walking the path is something I’ll never forget.

23. My most vivid experience in Poland is from visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Many of my family members passed through the camp and it was a very emotional experience.

24. On our tour of Birkenau, Nate, one of the survivors (who has become somewhat synonymous with the March of the Living Program), gave a speech about his experience of the Holocaust from inside one of the barracks at Birkenau. It moved me in ways, that I have since never experienced.

25. The site in Poland that had the greatest lasting effect on me was Majdanek. Being the only camp that is still fairly intact, and walking the path that the Holocaust victims walked through the camp (going through the gas chambers / showers on our way into the camp) made the most lasting impression on me. More than any other place in Poland, I felt (though I know it is impossible to compare) in a small way as if I experienced part of the horrors of the Holocaust first-hand. And then, as we left the camp past the incinerators and walked up to the monument which stored the ashes of hundreds of thousands of humans, I felt to a certain extent the unbearable scale of murder which had been committed.

26. I grew up constantly thinking about the Holocaust and having nightmares about it. I never thought I would be able to make it on the March. The moment I stepped off the bus into Auschwitz I immediately broke down into sobs. I had no control over my emotions. It was really a crazy to experience to completely let go of all my fears and sadness in the place where I had family killed and in the place where I had family survive. Another amazing memory that I will never forget is when I got to see my grandfather’s apartment (I was marching for him) in Lodz.

27. After we went to Majdanek, which was in my opinion the hardest and worst of the places I set foot in, none of us could eat or wanted to talk on the way back. The entire bus ride was silent and when we got back to the hotel everyone went to their rooms and didn’t talk just sat and let everything we had seen and experienced sink in. After a while the coordinators came and got us to come to dinner. It wasn’t just dinner though, it was Shabbat dinner that night, and it was the most amazing one I have ever experienced because after seeing such horror and experiencing such heartbreak and sorrow, there was total hope in that room in the hotel and a completely beautiful expression of what had survived, it was amazing, there was the usual arguing over tunes that a wonderful bond formed from because even though the tunes were different everyone knew the words, the sense of community was astounding and it was a wonderful Shabbat.

28. The Majdanek Camp affected me more than any other camp. I was filled with emotions from beginning to end, and I will never forget the sight of the crematorium and then the enormous pile of ashes at the end of the camp. Also, the March of the Living itself probably had the biggest lasting impact on me than any other experience. It was so powerful to walk in a crowd of thousands of Jewish people, and to feel in some way that we were not defeated. I believe that I have never been more in touch of and proud of my Jewish identity than I was on that day.

29. While Majdanek was the most emotionally jarring experience, and one which is seared into my memory, the actual March remains perhaps the most powerful experience of my life.

30. [The greatest impact of the trip was] visiting the concentration camps, listening to the survivors stories and discussing the events with our groups afterwards. touring the cities in Poland was also important because we were met with a bit of anti-Semitism which is not a good thing, but it was an important learning experience for me. it showed me that the purpose of me being on this trip is more needed than I ever could’ve expected because that anti-Semitism continues to this day and this is something I need to conquer. on the other note one of the best things was meeting polish kids our own age. and realizing their struggles and how they have grown past their own dark history.

31. Our trip went to the synagogue in Tikochin and had an amazing celebration of life, Israel and the Jewish people. We danced, partook in multiple horrahs and enjoyed celebrating being Jewish. After the celebration we boarded our bus and drove through the stunning countryside with a sunset filled purple, pink and orange sky. We arrived at a stunning forest (Ten years later I have only seen trees like that one other time in my life)… I noticed others leaving in tears. I had no idea why, but I figured they were emotional. Until this point nothing had hit me hard, including the gas chambers at Auschwitz and the barracks at Birkenau. The March was unbelievable, but I still had not shed a tear.

Our contingency gathered around a fenced off area, I will never forget the lit yahrzeit candles, the green metal fence, and the faces of the students bundled up in their blue jackets. All was silent. Without warning one of our survivors began to speak. The story she told next has stuck with me, and impacted me, more than any other story I have ever heard. As she began to tell the story of the people of Tikochin, I suddenly felt the first tear roll down my face – the tear I had thought until now was possibly not going to come. To be in a spot so beautiful, a spot when I walked in I thought “ how lucky am I to be at a place of such beauty”. I felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under me and I didn’t know which way to go. As our survivor told us the story of the people who were brought to this very spot, lined up, and then forced to dig their grave – the grave I was standing in front of. I pictured the people being shot one by one as their family stood knowing they were next. This was my turning point. I had heard the stories of the camps, heard the tales of those who hid with families, and even knew about mass executions. What made it real for me was the beauty. I had always pictured Poland as dark, grey and gloomy. Beauty was never a thought in my mind. Little things started to make me think. At Auschwitz I remembered green trees and a bright sunny day. In Warsaw we had a picnic at a park, again, in the sun. And at Plaszow, the locals riding through on their bikes. I suddenly realized the grey picture I had in my mind was not necessarily true. That there were beautiful sunny days. That this place of horror actually seemed pretty and pleasant when the sun hit it the right way. And that days like this existed when our ancestors were there. This to me, made it all real.

32. I was struck by the incomprehensibility of the sheer number of people murdered in the holocaust at Treblinka, where stones are meant to represent the largest number of people murdered in one day there. The stones are almost human-sized, and I tried to imagine them as people I knew. This would only account for a few of the stones around me, however, and thinking about this I realized how many lives and stories were really annihilated during a mere day’s work in Treblinka.

33. Auschwitz had the most lasting impression of what the holocaust did to people. As we were going into the barracks, our survivor said he was going to wait outside as he never wanted to step foot in them again. But after he thought that a student had a questions he immediately without thinking jumped in and started answering questions. Only until he started speaking about his mother sending him away and the last time he saw his mother did he start to choke up and stopped speaking. It was the only time and only topic [where] he couldn’t control the emotions.

34. It was the day we went to Birkenau which was where all my maternal side of the family perished. It is a very weird feeling walking around in a place only 60 years later from where hundreds of thousands of people died. I didn’t exactly know how I should be feeling when I was there. The most lasting impression from that day though was when we were standing in one of the barracks and one of our survivors told us a story when he looked outside to see truckloads of naked women and children being driven to the gas chambers which was only a couple hundred meters away. He said that he saw his mother on that truck. I have never had so many shivers go down my back in my life. He kept repeating the words “I wish I never looked outside… I wish I never had to see that” – those words are ingrained in my memory forever.

35. Ticochen, a small shetel no longer. Where 2500 Jews were marched into the nearby forest and slaughtered. I still can’t think about it without becoming emotional. I still can’t get the image of my own family, walking together, knowing, to out fates. That small square of land, such an unjust resting place for so many. And or course, walking into the crematorium, thinking how unfair it was that I could leave. Asking what made me lucky enough to come and go to this place of certain brutal death to my ancestors.

36. Being in Majdanek left a lasting impression on me. I will never forget how I felt seeing the dome with the ashes and the gas chambers and crematoria. Also, being in towns with the synagogues either destroyed or preserved was very moving for me because it allowed me to imagine the vibrant Jewish life that had existed and had since vanished.

37. It was as though the voices of the past were still calling… This was especially true in the death camps. Everything in the history books suddenly came alive – all my nightmares manifest. And the echoing plea in the back of my mind to never forget.

38. [My most lasting impression was] visiting the synagogue in Oswiecim after visiting Auschwitz. There are only 2 Jews left in the community, not enough for a minyan, and we held services there. I felt like we were bearing witness to the atrocities at Auschwitz while at the same time reviving the Jewish spirit in the synagogue that had been brutally murdered during the holocaust. This was one of the first times I cried in Poland, and it was just as much tears of joy for our survival as tears of sadness.

39. The moment in Poland that had the most impact on me was when we were in one of the concentration camps that had head stones with the names of cities on them. I found the city that my Zaidy had come from, and being a very small town, I couldn’t help but know that my relatives had been there years before me. I said mourners kaddish and the way the tomb stone stood out to me above all the rest is something I will never forget.

40. When we went to visit Birkenau I was with my holocaust survivor and had found his name written on one of the barracks, I felt very close to him and towards other Jews who had been left behind. Being able to have a survivor help walk with me through the camps also had a profound impact and remains an important memory to me that I share with others frequently.

41. … The march – I was privileged to lead the march and hold the flag with Howard. I will never forget how inspired I felt as I lead thousands of young Jews, adults, and some Polish students on the march from Auschwitz to Birkenau. We were marching the same path that the holocaust victims marched, but we were marching for life; to honor those that perished, and to recognize the importance of the Jewish people and our obligation to never forget.

42. … I will never forget standing in the barracks in Birkenau with the survivor who was on the trip with us describing how it was when he was there during the holocaust.

43. Seeing the size of the concentration camps allowed me to have more perspective on theconditions. The survivor on the trip was pointing out how she hid in the toilets, which were just small cement holes to escape Mengele at Birkenau and it gave me such a strong visual on the situation and a sense of the fear and horror she went through.

44. There was one site in Poland where a ceremony was held in the middle of a field of rockswith various names on them. This site had a lasting impact on me, because a teacher of mine in high school had told us the story of how he had found one of his family members’names there, and this made the site much more relevant to me, on a personal level.

45. The moment that had the deepest impact on me was the speech given by Rabbi Steinmetz at the Umshlagplatz moments before leaving for Israel. It was to this day, the most moving experience of my life.

46. The [most impactful moments on the March were] the visits to the concentration camps Majdanek and Belzec, and hearing the Polish survivors speak of their childhood on the streets where we were walking, and of their suffering in the camps we visited.

47. Going to the concentration camps where so much of my grandparents family had been killed [had the most impact on me.]

48. No words can accurately describe the state I was in during the visit of the concentration camps.

49. [My most lasting impression] was seeing a Holocaust survivor dance and celebrate with his grandson in one of the barracks inAuschwitz after telling his story.

50. Belzec had the most lasting impression on me in Poland. It was reduced to nothing but rubble and the names on the wall were common names because the specifics were unknown. It was hard and it left the biggest impression on me. Another big impact was hearing the survivor talk in the concentration camp Auschwitz or Birkenau (I don’t remember which) but it was so hard and painful for her that it left it’s own mark on me.

51. The two [experiences in Poland] that had the most lasting impression on me was the walking tour of the ghetto followed by havdallah. I’ll never forget the feeling of being close to all those in my group and us feeling the same emotion at the same time. The other lasting impression was at Majdanek, where I explored by myself and did a lot of reflection.

52. Listening to one of the survivors on our trip, Nate Leipciger, tell us his story while standing in Auschwitz-Birkenau [had the most lasting impact on me].

53. I will never forget the things I witnessed. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for those who suffered through the actual holocaust. I’m so thankful that I was just a visitor.

54. [I remember] going to the concentration camps and seeing the marks left behind by the Jews that were tortured and murdered there. Understanding that many of my family members perished this way or survived through these horrible conditions.

55. [I remember visiting] Auschwitz and hearing personal stories from Survivors.

56. When I came back from the March, I had an overwhelming sense of the horrors that humanity is capable of. Before I left, I would have said that all people are inherently good and after I came back, I was not sure sure. I think everyone should visit historical sites of the holocaust, such as concentration camps… one’s perception of the horror of the events completely changes. I am more motivated to combat incidences of genocide and racism that occur today.

57. [My most lasting impression] being able to share my grandmother’s holocaust survival story at Belzec, along with seeing the ruins of Majdanek will stay with me forever. The outrage and emotion I felt in Poland will never be forgotten.

58. There was a ceremony in Majdanek that probably had the most lasting impression on me. I just remember seeing the survivors standing and speaking, behind the mass grave dome.

Being able to see them stand there, strong, and alive, was probably the most vivid image I had during the trip of what had occurred, and how important it is to avoid it in the future.

59. It really is difficult to choose one [experience] – but perhaps [the most last impression] was a small ceremony that 2 buses took part in at the Belzec concentration camp. The grandchildren of holocaust survivors were asked to stand in a circle and it was a very emotional moment. A close second, would be the day of the actual March at Auschwitz – in a strange and unexpected way I felt a very strong sense of pride in standing in this awful place among young proud Jews from around the world on a sunny day at the very place where they tried to destroy us.

60. Majdanek was definitely the hardest part of Poland for me. We sang Hatikvah in the camp and I thought it was absolutely incredible. I also really appreciated how knowledgeable out tour guide was, and I found that our chaperones, Roberta and Morris, really helped me through every feeling I was having. They were encouraging and non-judgmental and I could really tell that they were there for us.

61. Walking in Auschwitz with our survivor as she recounted her stories from the holocaust [had the most lasting impression on me]. In particular, in the Auschwitz museum when our Madrich asked our survivor to describe a picture that was on a wall and she said that these people were waiting to be gassed and that one of the women in the picture was her mother.

62. After leaving Auschwitz on the day of the actual March of the Living, right before getting on the busses to leave, the entire trip of people and our survivors stood in a circle singing and rejoicing over the idea of Never Again. This moment has stood out in my mind as the most incredible moment. Being able to see our survivors who had families that perished in the very grounds we were standing on, yet instead of crying, were singing and saying never again really impacted my life and made me realize anything can be accomplished.

63. Auschwitz – walking from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II (Birkenau) with over 20,000 people and walking through the sign “work sets you free” [had the most lasting impression on me]. I also vividly recall being in the experimental gas chamber and seeing the scratch marks from Nazi victims of genocide.

64. I think one of the most vivid memories was when our trip was in a cabin at Birkenau (I believe it was right after the March). The survivors told us a story and then we started chanting (which we did a lot of in Poland – and it was very powerful) and everyone was crying. It was extremely powerful in realizing that the 5 survivors on our trip were actually living in this type of situation, and that we, the 500 odd kids on the trip, were a product of the survival of these incredible people.

65. When we were all gathered in Birkenau, at the site of the half-destroyed crematorium, during the big ceremony and one of the leaders, whose father had died in Birkenau, started giving a speech. But rather than address us, he called out, “daddy”, and spoke instead as though to him. My father is my best friend, so that really affected me. I still get goose bumps when I remember the chaperone saying that.

66. I think one of the most vivid memories was when our trip was in a cabin at Birkenau (I believe it was right after the March). The survivors told us a story and then we started chanting (which we did a lot of in Poland – and it was very powerful) and everyone was crying. It was extremely powerful in realizing that the 5 survivors on our trip were actually living in this type of situation, and that we, the 500 odd kids on the trip, were a product of the survival of these incredible people.