Back to Birkenau

Do you believe in reincarnation? I would like to share a startling first-hand story with you. I usually write about education and other related topics. But I’m going to make an exception and tell a story that needs to be told.
 
Yeshiva Neveh Zion in Israel where I teach is a school for Jewish young men 17-20 year olds. Over the past ten years, the yeshiva has travelled yearly to Poland to visit the different cities, Concentration Camps, old Synagogues, and many other historical sites with the hopes of inspiring its students and bringing them closer to their Jewish roots. This powerful trip has stirred the boys in ways that they, and we, never expected. One of the most powerful moments was during one of our original trips.
 
That year, one of the participants was a wonderful young man from Canada. As opposed to most of our students who come from religious backgrounds, Josh grew up in a semi-affiliated Jewish environment as a member of a Conservative Synagogue. Even with his different background, Josh, with his warm smile and personality, was loved by staff and students alike. He came to Poland with hopes of being inspired to connect to his Jewish roots.
 
The main camp we visited was the infamous Auschwitz. Josh was emotionally overwhelmed every step of the way. I remember him crying uncontrollably as we left the gas chamber in Aushwitz. But the scenario that was about to unfold no one could have foreseen. A few kilometers away is Birkenau, with its terrible “selection”: those that were pointed by the movement of a Nazi thumb, to work and life and others that were marched to their death. When Josh arrived, even before walking through the camp, he started to tell some other boys where each different building were located. “If you go right, you’ll see this building. And if you turn left, you’ll find the following.” The boys were speechless. What was going on?
 
Before proceeding with our story, let’s turn back the clock to when Josh was five years old. Even though Josh was raised in a loving and caring environment, even so, he used to have a recurring, terrifying nightmare. In his dream, he would see himself naked with other Jews being mercilessly beaten and shoved in the direction of a room without windows. The screaming and panic were beyond description. Suddenly, a small opening in the roof was removed and some sort of poison was thrown in. This lethal gas caused everyone to choke to death. At that point, Josh would wake up.
 
He had this dream a few times a year for a number of years until age 10. His parents were very concerned about these terrible nightmares but they didn’t know what to make of them. Josh was brought to a therapist who asked Josh if he knew anything about the Holocaust and responded honestly that he had no idea what the therapist was referring to. The therapist, due to a lack of any other explanation, told the parents that he had to assume that Josh was a reincarnation of someone who lived and was killed in the Holocaust. It was hard to know what to do with such a conclusion, especially from a secular psychiatrist. Fortunately the dreams went away.
 
Josh hadn’t thought about those dreams for many years but when he walked the paths of Auschwitz, and particularly Birkenau, the memories of his dreams flooded his mind. These places, in real life, were the exact places he had seen as a boy so many years ago. Josh jumped back in time to both his nightmares and to his past life. The experience was shocking beyond words. He could tell his fellow students where everything was located because he had been there before.
 
Ultimately, this experience became the catalyst for a life transformation. There was no way for him to deny the reality of what he had experienced, nor did he want to deny it. Josh knew he had been in these places before and that he was brought back to re-experience them for a reason. That reason was to fulfill his soul’s purpose: connecting to Hashem, His Torah, and, of course, the Jewish people. Hashem didn’t forget him (and Hashem hasn’t forgotten anyone who went through those horrific years).
 
Thank G-d, Josh is married with a beautiful family and has just started a new position working with Jews who have yet to experience the joys of Judaism. The deja-vu story is incredibly powerful but, to me, what is additionally powerful is Josh’s commitment to transform the death and pain of the past, the dreams of horror and death to dreams of hope and building for himself, his family, and the Jewish people.
 
 
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Rabbi Dovid Charlop is on the teaching staff of the Neve Tzion Yeshiva in Telzstone, Israel. You can see more of Rabbi Charlop's articles here.