Day 3 - Auschwitz I

Auschwitz is a place that everyone has a general idea about; some people know more than others, yet it pulls peoples attention. Trying to understand the life that the Jewish people went through is close to impossible; even after spending my entire morning in Auschwitz I I still cannot understand it. People always say that bad things always happen to good people, yet in this case it was terrible things that happened to innocent people. With this people have controversial thoughts that maybe bad things happen to good people because they are the strongest, they are the ones that will make the most of the situations that they are given? With saying this, Jewish people today take huge pride in their religion, their heritage, their family, and their traditions; and for this everyone else should admire. 

Walking around Auschwitz there were so many different feelings going on, it's very hard to be feeling so much all at once, it's very hard to separate the feelings. You can feel the eerie tension that roams around the roads and in the buildings, all the sadness comes to you at once. This made me sick to my stomach. Seeing peoples hair (hit my like a brick wall with instant tears) that had been cut off and still sitting there decades later, made it more real for me that these people were dehumanized at the worse it could’ve been. 1. The fact of how much hair there was was mind-blowing and 2. Thinking about all those beautiful people and beautiful hair weren’t even considered people, only “numbers.” This, I'm sure, would hurt their self-esteem especially for women. If they aren't happy with themselves how can they make the most of the horrible life they were just given? It's very difficult to try to put myself into these people's shoes because everything is just so terrifying and the numbers are so big that wrapping my mind around concepts like this are to much to think about and understand. 

There are just so many things that we learned and saw and talked about today that it would be impossible for me to reflect on everything that touched me because everything did. This picture that I picked especially also stood out to me. There was a white room with copied drawings that children had created in the ghetto camp Terezin. This picture breaks my heart because I tried to put myself in this little child's shoes. This mother and child are holding onto each other so tightly, it is full of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the thought that they may never see each other again, fear that there may never be an ending. Personally, and I can't say that I know for sure, but I'm pretty sure one of my biggest fears would be losing my mother, and other members of my family. To cherish a hug like this one could last someone a life time. The remembrance of that hug, the warmth, the smell, and the feeling. The feeling of how you felt, and the feeling of how the hug felt; a hug like this could save someones life.

- Patricia Keating