Today was the first day at the Ghetto Fighter's House Museum.  As I said earlier, it was the very first Holocaust Museum established in the world in 1949.  What I didn't know is that it was created and established by a group of 150 survivors!  They all came together here in Israel and started the Kibbutz (community) and the Museum together.  They wanted a community of just survivors--a house of testimonies.

We got a brief overview of the history of the Kibbutz and the museum and then heard testimony from one of the founders of the community and museum.  She was a member of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance group and lived outside the ghetto walls because of her Polish "look" and her command of the Polish language.  She would deliver the underground newspaper to other ghettos to keep them informed as to what was happening to the Jewish people.  She was arrested outside Krakow on a mission and spent time in Auschwitz Birkenau. She left that camp on the Death March and went to Ravensbruck where she was sent to Switzerland in a Red Cross prisoner agreement.  She told a wonderful story and urged us to teach our students to love life.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a session on using technology to teach the Holocaust.  I won't bore you with the details!  Tomorrow we visit the Kibbutz and the cemetery along with spending time in the museum and more teaching workshops.  Still learning, still questioning, still wondering how this was humanly possible.