Today we leave Poland. Visiting this country was an honor and a
special privilege that all of us were able to experience. My perspective of the Holocaust has
completely changed throughout the course of 7 days. At the end of this trip I have realized one
thing. We really will never fully
understand what happened during the Holocaust and why it happened. However, being able to come to Poland and
witness the remains the grounds of where it took place has definitely deepened
my understanding. My thoughts on what I believed happened during the Holocaust
are completely different then what they are now. I don’t care how many videos, books, and
courses somebody has been exposed to.
You learn so much more by physically being here. There is nothing quite like seeing the
streets where once stood ghetto walls, seeing the grounds of the camps, and hearing
the stories of survival, hope, and evil.
One important thing to remember is
that you cannot understand the Holocaust without remembering the millions of
stories of the lives of each person affected by it. There are multitudes of individual people
that fought for their lives during this time.
You can know that millions of Jewish lives were taken away (over 6
million) but we also have to remember that these are millions of names and
stories, not numbers. Each of these
people had lives just like you and me.
College students couldn’t go to school, families were separated from
each other, babies were killed for no reason.
Individual lives were completely changed and thrown into one same
fate. Father Manfred told us in his
lecture on Thursday that these people were categorized into one stereotype. However, I will now never forget that each
person in life has a name and dignity, you are not just a stereotype.
The biggest problem of the
Holocaust that Father Manfred said that we struggle with is ethics. The
question is not where was God, but where was the human being? God is in the
dignity of every person. People
encountered God when they decided to recognize or ignore each person’s human
value. Where was the human being to take
responsibility and show respect for the life of others? Sometimes people did,
and a lot of times, people suppressed their empathy for others. But why?
In life evil will occur, because
evil exists. Humans have free will,
given from God and we can choose to do good or evil. God does not control this act. However, we have to learn to love above all
else. To love even what we cannot
understand. I will never understand how
the lives of so many people were taken away so efficiently. However, I do know this. Love never fails, and though I cannot
understand why so much evil in the world happens. My experience in Poland this week has helped
me understand this: despite all our doubts, I need to and will continue to
strive to love God and everyone in my life.
Hopefully we will understand, when it is our time, but for now, we are
called as Christians to love. And
despite all these questions, I will choose love.
Thank you to Dr. Procario-Foley,
Dr. Rozensher, and the rest of my classmates for an experience I will never
forget. I will cherish everything I
learned with you and about you! And to
anyone reading this blog, push yourself to be a voice for love in action in the
world.
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