MARCEL ZIELINSKI
Marcel Zielinski was born into Krakow’s thriving Jewish community in September of 1934. By 1941, he and his family had been relocated into the Ghetto where he spent the next few years. Marcel was later forcibly moved to the Plaszow concentration camp, built on what was once a Jewish cemetery. In October 1944, he and his father were sent to Auschwitz, where he was imprisoned until the Russian liberation on January 27th, 1945. His father did not survive the war and was last seen leaving Auschwitz on a death march heading west. A few days after liberation, Marcel, along with a group of boys, walked out of Auschwitz and made their way on foot to Krakow in search of his family. He was finally reunited with his mother, the only surviving member of his family, in August 1945.
Since 2015, Marcel has made that same journey out of Auschwitz— not by foot, but by bicycle, to Krakow’s Jewish Community Centre, which continues to grow and rebuild vibrant Jewish life in Krakow. He rides along this 60-mile journey side-by-side with his son Betzalel and two granddaughters, and meets his wife Maryla, a survivor herself, at the finish line at the JCC. Marcel’s story is one of victory and life.
Click here to learn more about Marcel and the Ride For The Living in Newsweek.
BERNARD OFFEN
At the age of ten, Bernard Offen endured the Krakow Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps of Plaszow, Julag, Mauthausen, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Dachau-Kaufering. Only he and his two older brothers survived out of over 50 family members. In what Bernard would call his “process of healing,” he returned to Poland in 1981 to confront his demons. Not long after, he would begin his life’s mission of advocacy by spending summers in Krakow remembering, educating, and inspiring others. In participating in Ride For The Living, Bernard bikes away from Auschwitz-Birkenau where he was a prisoner, to JCC Krakow where he is now an active member. His wish is for the JCC to continue its support of his fellow Holocaust survivors.
TESTIMONIALS
We started out from a terrible place under an angry sky. We rode as strangers, as friends, and as families. We climbed, we sweated, we fell, and we flew. We thought about those who never left that terrible place. And in the end, we arrived. Together, under a blue sky, strangers no more, having made a journey that took us farther than the miles we rode. Welcomed into a place that has become for many a home. Close to that terrible place but at the same time far, far away.
Jonathan Ornstein, JCC Krakow Executive Director
This was a symbolic ride, reaffirming the Jewish people's unmistakable will to survive and thrive. The experience moved me beyond what I could have ever expected, and seeing the hundreds of Poles applauding and cheering upon entering the courtyard of the JCC at the end of a hard and rigorous ride brought me to tears, tears of joy, of hope, of connection, and promise.
Marc, 2015, 2018 & 2020 RFTL Participant
Although I would not consider myself a religious Jew, I felt very spiritual by participating in the Ride. It was an empowering experience. I personally bonded with people I met and cried for the people who perished in the camps. Visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau was sobering and overwhelming. Biking from the gates of Birkenau to renewed life in Krakow was a change from sadness to hope. The images will stay with me forever. I am so grateful that I was able to experience this so I can tell people how important it is to remember. I will never forget.
Joan, 2019 RFTL Participant
