Meet the interns: Uncovering the past

Interview with Ashley Borell
Holocaust and genocide studies concentrator and sociology major Ashley Borell spent two weeks in June 2004 helping to reclaim a cemetery on the site of the former concentration camp where her grandmother and great-aunt had been imprisoned during World War II. An exhibit of photographs from Ashley's trip is on display at the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies during Fall semester 2004, and online. Below, she describes the reclamation project and the impact of visiting a place imbued with such personal and historic significance.

How did you find out about the reclamation project?

Professor Shelly Tenenbaum told me about Experiential Learning International (ELI) that connects people with internship and volunteer opportunities around the world. On their web site I learned about the Plaszów Camp Reclamation Project in Poland.This Project felt like it was custom-made for me, because it would allow me to contribute to the remembrance of the Holocaust, see where my grandparents and great-aunt grew up, and tour Holocaust sites and memorials.

My grandmother, Blanca Borell, and her sister, my great-aunt Sonia Weitz, are survivors of the Holocaust, including the Krakow ghetto and five Nazi concentration camps: Plaszów , Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Venusburg and Mauthausen. Sonia wrote her memoir, I Promised I Would Tell , which was published in 1993. She also founded the North Shore Holocaust Center and speaks around the country. She has made it her life's mission to abolish hate and spread the word of tolerance to everyone. In her book there are wonderfully touching poems and accounts of what she calls her "six years of darkness."

At a young age I knew of the Holocaust, and other bits and pieces of information: that my grandparents had been secretly married in a cellar in the Krakow ghetto and that 84 people in our family had died. As I grew older, I wanted to know everything I could about the realities of the Holocaust and what my relatives had been through. This trip allowed me to feel like I had finally done something to contribute to the remembrance of the Holocaust, and I was able to see the terrible places like Auschwitz with my own eyes. I will never forget what I saw.

What was your role in the Plaszów Camp Restoration Project?

The purpose of this project was to reclaim the large Jewish cemetery that existed before the war. After Plaszów Concentration Camp was built on the site of the cemetery, the prisoners were forced to destroy all of the Jewish tombstones with sledgehammers, a task that my great-aunt actually mentioned doing in her memoir. Eventually, all that was left of the gravesites were large concrete slabs about three by five feet in size, covered covered with bushes, weeds, and tall grass. Some of the graves had even been opened, and trees were growing out of them.

Our task was to find the graves, uncover them, and mow an area around the graves so people could actually tell it was indeed a cemetery.

Can you describe a typical day working on the Project?

We woke up at 7:00 a.m., Monday through Friday, and took a tram to the CEKIE foundation, the Polish organization committed to recovering historic and important sites all over Poland. There we met up with some of the other locals working on the project and set out. Then we would hike through the periphery of a quarry (where a lot of the movie Schindler's List was filmed) and finally arrive at the site. We worked until 4:00 p.m. with lunch in the middle, and then took a tram home. Almost everyday we were so exhausted that we had to take naps, but by 6:00 p.m. or so we would be out enjoying the beautiful city of Krakow, eating in quirky restaurants and shopping.

I noticed that there was a lot of anti-Semitic graffiti spray painted on the walls around the city. The graffiti needs to be removed, but I don't think much is being done about it yet. A lot of the historic buildings are beautifully restored, but more needs to be done. The important buildings that were used in the Holocaust should be restored and used to remember and respect the people who suffered or died there. For instance, there is one building that is very close to the cemetery, within view actually, where it is said that Amon Goeth lived and oversaw medical "experiments" being performed on prisoners. Now it is a home for a few families, and there are rows of clothes drying on the balcony. Something about that doesn't seem right to me. It should not be a home; instead it should be a memorial. Even just a plaque would be appropriate. Something...

Was there any one thing from your trip that left a particulary strong memory?

I will never forget the day we toured Auschwits and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. While walking through all of the brick, rectangular buildings separated by areas for prisoners to gather for headcounts, humiliation, and execution, I just kept thinking that I shouldn't be here--that I wasn't supposed to be on earth at all. Out of 84 family members from that time, only Blanca and Sonia survived. It made me feel very, very lucky. It was a very overwhelming and strange feeling.

Did participating in the project provide you with a way to learn about the Holocaust that would not have been available in a classroom setting?

Absolutely. Learning about the Holocaust through texts and movies is very different from being where it happened. Seeing Auschwitz, digging bones out of the ground, and walking in the barracks really fufilled my need to know about this place and this grievous time in history. I would recommend experiental learning to any college student. It's a perfect way to see the world and to make yourself useful at the same time. Although sometimes it was hard, it was a great life experince. It's important to see things for yourself.

From this experience I hope to better understand the terrible atrocities that are still happening today, like those in Rwanda and Sudan, and to understand the human capability to promote and inflict evil and pain on humanity. Some day we will know how to prevent genocide from happening.