the jewish service of morning prayer for retaliation and warsaw's main synagogue led by the chief rabbi of poland in a minute michael should rick. mitchell yeah. the fact that there's noise behind me because the people who have prayed are now having breakfast together is a sign that there is jewish life but it's not resurgence of jewish life in poland that's a little less than a miracle. really. this was the country that nazi germany chose as its focus for a systematic genocide. during the holocaust some 6000000 jews died across europe we don't talk

a lot about auschwitz. christmas this person has a as a gift a great gift. we desperately needed the rabbi. or the others. have some. fundraising. they said that. might try to have a catholic bishop among other public figures attending an interfaith service in the polish capital warsaw. the host chief rabbi michael should rick. it's. a prayer that anti semitism will disappear. change

doesn't happen overnight. it takes time but as long as you see you're going in the right direction that gives you gives you energy and gives you the. hope that sustains michael should ric's work this is the office of the chief rabbi of poland warsaw is no 6 synagogue is home to the american born rabbi. and never find what you want or need it the son of a new york rabbi should rick 1st visited poland in the 1970 s. in search of his jewish roots at the end of the cold war the young man now a rabbi himself emigrated there the communist regime had long been hostile towards jews. this is the 1st time that a jewish prayer book was reprinted in poland after the fall of communism this is the regional page was from 1026 this is probably from. $9192.00 to.

30 years old warsaw has numerous jewish institutions including a flourishing school. the school caters to some 200 pupils this. you know on and the america's children among them like thousands of other polish jews the 40 year old started discovering her jewish heritage when she was already an adult. thanks to the dedication of chief rabbi michael should read. this school in which their jewish identity is respected and fostered is a great support for you on a knee america her husband and their 3 children. but because neutral. in so far still for its never never know for this i think this hole and the money my know it's a huge real minority so it's real sometimes it feels like you know we only have the whole aeronca. the school flourishes with financial support

from the united states the american billionaire ronald s. lauder founded the institution in the 1990 s. . his motive to encourage a renewal of jewish religious life in poland. we needed somebody to go to poland. i heard about this rabbi they michael she's rich so we brought him over we saw him and we said this is the right person but it was interesting was that the men he got to polish. he became much more from. the much more polish and is he started to lead but which mona constanta stop to yes he were faithful to their jewish heritage even during the communist era as we had began before that you know we had to send the it much earlier and this money cause a book the 2nd one by the end of the summit there is the reason mothers involved on

the research their jewish ancestry. some 90 percent of the jewish population of poland was slaughtered during the german occupation. those few who survived often did so by adopting christianity. the old cemeteries are the sole witness to poland's extensive jewish population before the show. then to learn anything jewish with and. feeling jewish and when we were children because we were not introduced into it. chief rabbi michel should rick on a visit to southern poland. and the dutch. rabbi should rick is constantly on the move even when traveling he's multitasking today he's conferencing with the jewish community in

pittsburgh. steps aside. they're setting up an exchange program for young jews from poland and the u.s. i think about that our biggest challenge some of the very practical and it's still it's less but still existing on follow up is we don't necessarily have the professional staff to follow up the way we should. so many projects and sometimes it seems like too much for one person. who said it was going to be easy. i could say that the jewish community of poland in the last 30 years has gone from a stagnating dying dysfunctional jewish community to a reemerging vibrant dysfunctional jewish community. we're still dysfunctional but at least now we're alive we're vibrant we're creating. today there are once again jewish communities in all of poland's larger towns with several 1000 members

. nobody knows exactly how many some say there are up 212000 practicing jews. this renee's on says given rise to new business ventures kosher food for instance. rabbi shubrick is visiting 3 of those businesses today only one was willing to be filmed the prophet of vodka distillery that. the production of the office the production. rabbi should bring checks that the body is produced in conformity with jewish law. for instance no flavorings with gelatine may be used or any other ingredient derived from pig. so this in here actually some when we see it signed in hebrew by our supervisor it's. with a a lock here here and here and here and here. so we know that when we come back to

the passover the passover production that it really is from that alcohol. most of the production is destined for export only a fraction for local consumption so these to share something important which means . people who. knows that it's not going to be could communicate if you think about politicians jewish people but i think most of people don't know that. from jewish communities so i think if this is true in progress so. information giving information about. a generation very well. i'm very happy that i wasn't the only jew who won through live as a jew in both of them because otherwise it would have been very lonely. the rabbi

the with the present. very point it's kosher for passover. so far our impressions have been positive but jewish gentile encounters don't always run as smoothly lets go. relations with the polish government have been strained recently. the nationalist right wing government introduced legislation in 2018 that offended jewish sensibilities deeply. it makes it illegal to claim that poland collaborated with nazi germany in perpetrating the holocaust. it basically was the the good name of poland the polish shouldn't be blamed for things that they didn't do but there was then a great concern is but they were poles they did bad things and how we going to deal with that. jewish pushback met with a wave of anti-semitic rhetoric in the media. didn't name

that will staff the legislation was controversial keystone opponents on the one hand poles feel insulted when the press in europe or international media referred to the german concentration camps as polish death camps and the hearts of poles you have to understand that the part of the polish people themselves suffered during the 2nd world war and after she was given a shot i think at the end it was an unnecessary. problem that has said. more or less is no longer you know people remember it but it's no longer a wound it's a scar. when international jewish organizations protested the legislation warsaw held discussions with the israeli government and made some substantial amendments. rabbi should rick likes to focus on the positive aspects of life in poland.

that poland is represented by people like daria's p.l.o. for instance. a member of the polish olympic team. is as busy as the chief rabbi but he still finds time to get involved in the restoration of jewish cemeteries. like the one in southern poland for many years the cemetery was completely neglected. we'll do something here to improve things 1st a launch an appeal on facebook we already have permission i just thought i'd have more time now to do something otherwise i'd have come much sooner to get this fixed up. book yellow once to clear the cemetery of brambles and restore its over. several months later the reopening after a lot of hard work. a memorial plaque is

a wreck did listing the jewish residents of the small village who were killed by the nazis. rabbi should rick especially appreciates the commitment of these volunteer workers. it's a real life for the group of reason was closed after several centuries in august 94 to 2 on 20 for all it was the nazis started to run for the parties. and there. you have. fire and. you know i thought that was why. i know. there are initiatives like this all over poland for the past 30 years the restoration work has been focusing on

a few more towns or villages each year michel should rick considers this one of his most important tasks. my relatives of the people buried here often come from overseas to visit. my 3 kids my niece and nephew my sister my brother in law. my wife fighting over there somewhere. it's an obligation of every good to. not only choose germany as it's really the obligation of every good human being to me what happened on a holiday but if you think about that then perhaps the 1st thing we should do is make sure that every victim of the holocaust has a great friends relatives dimension the best of our ability we'll never get close to you have the grades for success we understand started charlie by justice he gets 100 more like 30 more even want to. there's a tremendous value. it's sometimes said of michael should rick that he's rabbi of

the living and of the dead in poland. a little bit if they're at home with yana luke osh and their 3 children. and nina. the couple have international contact with you ana is an actress and recently appeared in a swedish film. husband is a theater director and has been working in slovakia. to question the myths that living openly as a jew in poland sometimes makes him feel insecure. just . one of the tragic moments after a war you have to do is after war boland was the 68 because it was the moment when. my family had to go go go out from golems the so-called march events of $968.00 were

a further trauma for polish jews the communist party declared the student protests a jewish rebellion there was an upsurge in anti semitism many polish jews who had survived the shoah now left in fear of their lives. how my life or our war was the person 1st person who told me of mary's no one to cement his mind but now i'm i'm talking to myself where you. and where. the strange way. jewish kids into our school. the jewish community in poland is on a journey that started 30 years ago in a small village in the south of the country. at an adult education center here michael should rick organized seminars on jewish life. today it's

a hotel and guest house. it's the 1st time in many years that rabbi should rick has been back to the place where it all began i mean it seems people have 1520 years and i reckon that. maybe families would think. it's impossible to. be jewish in poland and not feel the presence of the apps as. the generation born after the shoah often didn't know anything about their jewish roots and even those who knew never had a chance to experience it never had a shot before. not some some did but many didn't. and so it was really a 1st chance was also a chance just to be openly jewish. you know enough to worry about anybody making a comment or wondering what it meant so. in a lot of ways it all started here. we had to.

look to these kids not kids anymore they were in their thirty's and forty's. and i'll never forget we sang a song called. the ways and means and we said. to sing this song. to his children all those. who remember the song heard the song please join. first then 20 to 80 kids. of the hundreds missing. from this just. by the by the 3rd probably never heard before since their. one year later the latter foundation financed the 1st jewish courses in response.

stanislav and monica craig esky were 2 of the 1st participants. at last they felt able to practice their jewish faith openly no need to hide and be discreet as in the communist era stanislav even led community prayers sometimes. many of the participants were holocaust survivor. during the war there were 2 of them so they were not adults yet some of them were little children or babies some of there were i don't know 8 or 10 and the survived to know either because they were hiding somewhere or they were given the. both to create skis were born after the war. this was very helpful to make me more. knowledge to make me know how do the things that regular joes do because this is not something that i got from my family also this is true about

all or almost all people of my generation and younger so those who lived in both. were jewish in some way in the seventy's or in the eighty's and were mostly very assimilated and the very far from. jewish involvement. we see you know 8 weeks a year 6 years. a makeshift synagogue was constructed in the corner of the education center for jewish religious like poland it was like starting from scratch. everything from. basic things in judaism should be kosher holidays history 2 what does it mean to be jewish how do you feel about being jewish and then also getting to know each other icebreakers and sometimes fun things everybody reenact the biblical scene.

and on friday nights we would put all the different benches that we could find and we'd have the prayer outside which is really i think everyone's favorite moment of the. appropriately the seminar buildings where this jewish renaissance began are located just an hour by car in the former german concentration camp auschwitz birkenau. were nazi henchmen carried out the largest act of mass murder in history to take place at any single location. but i should think it's harder to visit this place than easier. when it really became harder. and so there's there was 2 things one is so once my daughter was born so i think in

a natural way when you walk here when you don't have children you think you know what if i survived and let's have a child and you think could your could your child have survived and their fate one becomes a completely different experience. chamber 3 chamber for gas chamber 5 and this is the sauna. sometimes the rabbi visits auschwitz birkenau several times a month many visitors from america and israel was asked to meet him at the site where the. were killed and he's also the auschwitz foundation's senior religious representative the foundation that administers the concentration camp museum. says keeping the memory alive is crucial. it seems that in europe the shock

of the holocaust of this genocide the genocide in history. kind of silenced those people who refused to learn the lesson and it seems now 75 years later many people do know the lesson there are those who never knew the lesson and now want to speak. in a loud voice about. the little. henry star an austrian jew from vienna was an auschwitz survivor in august 1954 he was sent to auschwitz birkenau on one of the last transports to leave the concentration camp. platform it's. the slaughter.

this. shot a. group that's been formed. this is the place where. you know we go like this and my my uncle told me the story when they arrived on the train from tories and shot into raising. the world war one veterans were treated better because there was some level of jewish self-government and theresienstadt sublevel but these 3 of the veterans were treated better and mangled they were lined up 5555 and they were in the same line as some vets world war one veterans and mengele sent the veterans straight to the gas chambers and my uncle and his brother followed immediately with them figuring they were going to a better place based on their experience in theresienstadt and then mengele had his

guards kicked my uncle and his brother to the other side saying that huge you can't decide your fate those you couldn't leave and you couldn't even decide to be killed . and so ironically mengele saved my uncle's life. which is bizarre. henry starr survived auschwitz and emigrated to the us where he married and had children michael should rick learned a lot from his uncle what extent. the ideas that you just i very much took away from that i think took away from that that you just you can't be indifferent as something is wrong you have to try to fix it. it's december christmas and warsaw. christian traditions are. vital part of polish

culture. the jewish community is celebrating hanukkah the festival of light. simply put it was the place i was supposed to be. even after 30 years there are still lots to do in this country where jewish life was virtually a radical aided by nazi germany. well looks like it's still the place i'm supposed to. be a it. was ever. laughed.

at. making babies we all know how that works. but do we also know what effect extreme stress has on having children eat what can be done to improve male fertility or in everything works the best known to find

out on the miracle of life and tomorrow today next on g w. they were victims of alfred's twin experiments a fact and her sister survived the. nazi 2 dr joseph mengele tortured the young girls in the name of so-called medical research. decades later returned to the camp to tell her harrowing story. 70063 in 45 minutes on d w. is for me. peter is for you. beethoven as for hell. beethoven is for.

is for the. beethoven is for cars. be told it is for the more. beethoven 2020 than 250th anniversary year on w. . gets into tomorrow today the science show on d w this time we look at the early stages of life. primitive babies often struggle to survive researchers are trying to raise their chances but it all starts with conception how men can improve their sperm quantity. and we're all animals

what our doctors can learn from other mammals.