Friday, May 5, 2017

Most are Gone, but All Aren’t Forgotten


Returning home from Poland and attempting to fully explain my experience was tough.  Sharing my new knowledge about the Soah, Pope John Paul and Krakow wasn’t difficult.  Sharing pictures with my loved ones was a bit of a struggle, merely because I remember exactly how I felt when snapping them.  Oddly enough the hardest part for me, was answering the simple question of “How was Poland?”  When someone first asked me this question, I was dumbfounded.  How does one fully explain one week of their life that was life changing, eye opening, humbling and incredible in a few sentences?


To be honest, I don’t have an answer for my own question and still have some trouble answering it today.   However, I found when I set aside time to have a lengthy conversation with a family member or good friend, I can fully explain my thoughts, feelings and experience, so talking about Poland becomes easier.  I am aware that everyone who asks about my trip to Poland doesn’t actually want to hear every detail, so I describe my experience to him or her as educational, unimaginable, bewildering and mournful. 

Flowers left on prisoner’s sleeping area

Even though our trip was only a short period of time, everyday I find myself being reminded of Poland and/or the Soah.  For example, a few weeks ago I was conversing with a friend about my experience on this trip.  After sharing my pictures and telling him about some of the horrifying events that occurred, he said “I don’t understand how people could let something like this happen.  Millions of people were being killed, and no one even tried to stop it.”  My heart dropped, but I knew what I had to tell him.  I told him all about righteous gentiles and how it is so important not to judge other people’s actions, especially when one doesn’t fully understand another’s circumstances.  I also told him that some people wanted to help the victims, but there were high risks involved, such as death, if they were caught.  I also reminded him that terrible events occur today around world, but not everyone is sympathy or proactive. 

I think it is important to relate my interaction to a reading we were assigned to read.  It said “More or less eight to 10 million people go to such exhibitions around the world today, they cry, they ask why people didn’t react more at the time, why there were so few righteous, then they go home, see genocide on television and don’t move a finger” (Kimmelman).  This was a gentile reminder that it is so easy to look back at our not so far away past and judge the actions of others.

It is difficult to grasp how a select group of humans decided they had the right to create this camp and others like it, in order to carryout a systemic genocide. Its tough to comprehend the horrific events and my experience can be hard to talk about at times.  Regardless, I believe it is vital for everyone to study this time period and remember all of those affected by the Soah, because most are gone, but all should be remembered.






WORK CITED

Kimmelman, Michael. "Auschwitz Shifts From Memorializing to Teaching." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

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