My Only Question Left Unanswered -Maria Wik

I spent my first morning back at home looking through a book I bought, “The Auschwitz Poems”.  I stumbled upon one that almost perfect describes all the feelings that I have yet been able to put into words.

Remembrance

Here I stand in the midst of Auschwitz

My mind racing with the memories

Silent people walk

Where living skeletons worked.

There is a silence,

But I hear the cries of my people.

A slight breeze passes,

But I feel the beating of a whip.

My hands shift through what seems like ashes

And I glimpse a sea of bodies aflame.

There is an open field,

But I see innocent people beaten.

A lone building stands in the distance,

But I see a place of death.

A place where terrible things took place

Horrors not even known to man.

With wistful eyes, I observe this place

Seeing things of the past

This place being as I left it

Wit an echo of remembrance.

-Tawnysha Green (1985)

Earlier this week I couldn’t find the words to say, but today they just keep flowing through my mind. The past week that I spent in Poland simply was just not enough. The thoughts I have surrounding my departure simply were this,  “I don’t want to go.” Five words backed with so much anxiety. I feel as though I haven’t learned enough; now that I am how I find myself being able to process more information that I learned over the course of the week.

‘Becoming a witness’ this phrase has stuck with me all week long. Now, to some extent, I have become a witness; where do I go from here? I go home. I go back to my normal life, with my friends and family who love and support me. They have not witnessed the sights I’ve seen, and their lives have not been impacted the same way that my life has been impacted.  

This journey is one I will never forget. I don’t think I could have made it through the week with out the love and support of the group. It’s a crazy thing to think about that even today injustices just like the Shoah are still happening. The one question I find myself left with after this trip isn’t why or how this happened, the question I find myself asking is: Will the world ever learn?

-Maria Wik