Roots Trip 2018
Ten of our members participated in a roots journey to our community between June 12-19, 2018.
The participants were: Milik Wachtel – 1st generation, and his son Shmulik; Shoshana Hanna – 2nd generation, and her son Tal; Moshe Yarkoni – 2nd generation, his wife Mira, and their daughter Rotem; Esther Finkelstein – 2nd generation; and Muki Sheffer and his sister Irit Tilman – 2nd generation.
The travelers followed in the footsteps of the past and were moved by a journey that connected them directly to their parents’ homes, the fate of our people, and our heritage. This feeling was strengthened for the group members when they walked through the market square, where their family members once walked. Some of the members located their parents’ homes, the streets, or the neighborhoods where they lived before the war. A difficult but essential sight was the visit to the cemeteries or their remains, where the extensive community was buried.
The delegation held moving memorial ceremonies at the mass graves in the forests and at the memorial monuments. The visit to the Bronica and Belzec forests emphasized the magnitude of the disaster that befell our families and our communities.
The personal stories of each of the members, which guided the group’s progress, lent a personal touch to the powerful experience and strengthened the special bonds that formed among the group members.
Shmuel (Milik) Wachtel, a first-generation survivor from Skhodnitsa, spoke about his life before the war, his struggle for survival during the war, and his life in Israel. Milik’s stories as a witness to life before the war, and his answers to the members’ questions, were absorbed with thirst by all the participants, especially by the third generation.
The delegation had the honor of participating in the dedication ceremony of the Great Choral Synagogue in Drohobych, which was renovated in recent years on the initiative of a survivor from Drohobych and his son. The event was attended by about 300 guests from many countries, who were joined by five of our members who came from Israel especially for this historic occasion: Aharon Weiss, Varda Givaoli, Uzi and Moshe Hendel, and Leah Kupferman.
Here is the film from the journey, which was shot and edited by Moshe Yarkoni.
Pictures from our journey:
