The Magen David Adom delegation to Poland included about 50 of the organization's volunteers and staff from across Israel who set out on a journey through the paths of Jewish history in Poland. During the trip, members of the MDA delegation toured the concentration and extermination camps in Krakow, Auschwitz - Birkenau, Lodz, Chelmno, Majdanek, Treblinka, Warsaw and more. Also, members of the MDA delegation to Poland visited other graves and monuments in Poland, including the children's forest in Tarnow where 800 of the city's orphanage children were murdered.
As every year, members of the Magen David Adom delegation made sure to visit Block 10 in the Auschwitz concentration camp - where Nazi doctors conducted experiments on Jewish male and female prisoners. Dozens of MDA volunteers and employees gathered and held a special ceremony aimed at remembering the atrocities and perpetuating the memory of those who perished.
MDA Senior EMT, Dudi Maatuf wrote about the trip: "When I returned from the trip, I was asked more than once, 'How do you sum up the trip?' And the truth is that even today, I don't have a clear answer." How will we sum up endless piles of shoes, hair, clothes and household items?! How will we sum up human shipments in cattle freight trains?! How will we summarize mass graves?! How will we sum up all the horrible and inhumane atrocities? But if we still have to summarize everything, it would be with the following sentence: "It is impossible to tell the story of the Holocaust, but it would be a crime not to try."
Assistant Manager of the Construction and Properties Department at MDA, Yossi Bracha, said: "My father, a Holocaust survivor, died in January about 7 months before the trip to Poland. As a child I heard all the stories about the Holocaust. All the family members from my grandmother's side perished in the Holocaust, but my father and his family survived. The stories from my childhood met me at many points on my journey. One of the most evocative places on the journey was the children's forest. We got there in the evening, we all gathered and recited Kaddish for all the children. After Kaddish we received letters from home, each one found his spot and in this complex situation, we read a letter written to us by family members and suddenly I felt the power of this journey.''
Ilan Teller, Chairman of the Board of the Holon branch of the MDA and head of the delegation of staff and volunteers to Poland, Ilan Teller, said: "The Holocaust is the terrible low point in Jewish history. We were in the extermination camps, we stood in front of the mountain of ashes in Majdanek and when we returned from the journey - we took on the mission of 'rescuers and rememberers.' We have the duty to remember and not to forget, we are obligated to preserve what we have seen and heard to continue to pass it on - so that we can declare: Never Again. We are proud to wear the Red Magen David (Star of David) symbol in honor of the survivors and in memory of the victims. We will continue to care for and save lives regardless of religion, race and gender as the spirit of MDA, while maintaining human dignity and from a sense of mission and commitment to the organization and the State of Israel."
MDA Director General Eli Bin said: "It is everyone's duty to engrave in their memory the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. Although what can be seen today on the soil of Poland cannot even in the slightest illustrate what the generation of Holocaust survivors experienced first-hand, there is no doubt that MDA missions in Poland have a vital and necessary educational value for generations, as we must remember and not forget. MDA, as an organization that saves lives and is a significant humanitarian organization in Israel and in the world, sets itself the goal of continuing to remind, and never to remain silent in the face of atrocities happening around us."