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26.05.03, 20:09
Israeli Arabs, Jews arrive in Poland to trace Holocaust
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WARSAW, Poland
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A group of 300 Israeli Arabs and Jews toured the historic Jewish disctrict
of Poland's southern city of Krakow Monday, beginning an unprecedented visit
that aims to help Muslims understand what Jews suffered in the Holocaust.
The group of 150 Israeli Arab intellectuals, athletes and businessmen,
joined by as many Jews, were to spend the coming two days touring and
learning about the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.
The visit to the camp, which comes at a time of great polarization and
bitterness created by 30 months of Mideast fighting, will be the largest by
a group of Arabs, according to Jaroslaw Mensfelt, spokesman for the
Auschwitz museum.
For many Jews, the trip is important because it demonstrates a willingness
on the part of the Arabs to recognize what European Jews endured during
World War II.
"Arabs have asked to learn about the Jewish suffering," Eleonora Lew, a
Jewish participant on the trip, said in a telephone interview from her home
in Tel Aviv before departing for Poland.
A delegation of about 200 Arabs and Jews from France are also to join the
group.
The Holocaust has played a central role in shaping the identity of Israel, a
nation at war with its Arab neighbors since it won statehood in 1948. For
many Israelis, the slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II is a
constant reproach to the world for failing to make an effort to save them.
Between 1940-45, more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in gas
chambers or died of disease, starvation and torture at Auschwitz, the
largest of the Nazi death camps. About 500,000 people from around the world
visit the camp each year.
Before World War II, Poland had a Jewish community of 3.5 million, or 10
percent of all citizens. Most died in the Holocaust and majority of the
survivors fled—chiefly to Israel.
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