Prayer and Dialogue

This image perfectly captures the solemnity of the day that we spent at Auschwitz I. I could not help but be reminded of the words, “the presence of absence and the absence of presence”.

It has been almost two months since returning from Poland. Though we know the importance of keeping the memory of the Shoah alive, sometimes that becomes difficult. There are endless distractions as part of our day-to-day lives that easily allow us to forget about what we may have seen and heard at the concentration camps just a few short weeks ago. However, when given time to reflect on my experience once again, many questions race through my mind: “Have I done my part in advocating for human dignity? Can people tell what my experiences were like through my actions? Is the memory of the Shoah alive in my everyday life?”

During our last night in Poland, we had a group discussion about how we would take what we learned there and use it in our lives back in New York. We talked about spreading advocacy and love, ultimately as part of an effort to avoid any hatred and discrimination like what was evident in the Shoah. The Holocaust and Nazi Germany are not things that should be forgotten. Rather, they should be the lens through which we look at the future of our world. They should recognized, and in doing so, there will be more efforts made in preventing it from happening again. After all, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –George Santayana

While in Poland, we stayed at the Centre for Prayer and Dialogue—two important things when discussing the Holocaust. The Centre encourages visitors to simply talk about what happened just a block away during the Second World War, and does so in a peaceful, welcoming way. This dialogue focuses on four different “voices: the voice of the earth, the voice of your heart, the voice of the other, and the voice of God. Engaging in dialogue while listening to these four voices can lead to a world of understanding and of acceptance.

Father Manfred, in one of his lectures, reminded us that dialogue is necessary so that all people can live together and form trust with open encounters. He also said, in another lecture, that it is better to look into somebody’s eyes, rather than at them while engaging in this dialogue. By doing this, we are observing something that lies behind the eyes and therefore developing a deeper relationship with the person. Our relationships, according to Father Manfred, and the responsibility we have in them is what helps us make sense of our lives.

These wise words from Father Manfred go hand-in-hand with the Teaching of Respect. Documents that were discussed in class like Nostra Aetate, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, Dabru Emet, and many more are all a part of the Teaching of Respect, which is in direct response to the Teaching of Contempt. I have faith that the world is progressively reaching a point of acceptance, love, and respect for all humans. It is no secret that it best reached through prayer and dialogue, as we got to experience first-hand during our unforgettable time spent in Poland.

An image of stones at the entrance of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the Jewish faith, stones are used instead of flowers for remembrance, as they are permanent.

Read More

Where Was God?

The “Wall of Death”, located at Block 11. This courtyard outside of Block 11 and the block itself were mainly used as direct killing sites.

Just the other day, I was walking through Auschwitz I… which is a sentence I never thought I would say. Doing so, millions of thoughts raced through my mind. As a devout Christian, I can’t help but think about why God would let such a cruel thing happen. If God is so loving and so forgiving, then where was He at a time like this? Especially coming across the Wall pictured above was one particular moment in which I really could not fathom how people did such a thing to other people. And if God works through us, why did his workings include mass murder?

Luckily, in his second lecture, Father Manfred addressed this topic directly. He made some very compelling points that have allowed me to be less confused with the question, “Where was God?” He began by talking about who God really is, in the perspective of the Jewish faith. He mentioned the importance of the covenant that is shared between God and his people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that this is the foundation of Jewish identity. The most admirable thing about the Jewish people was that they did not lose their faith no matter what was happening to them. In the words of Anne Frank, “Despite it all, I still believe that every human being is good at heart.” As the last line in her famous diary, this is a perfect representation of her unshakeable faith, and that of other Jewish people at the time.

Father Manfred assured us that though you may not understand why God let this happen, it does not mean He does not exist. We are not God, and we do not know more than He does; He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Answering this difficult question is not a matter of understanding God, but rather trusting Him. And in the same way that God was present in the suffering and death of Jesus, He was present during the Shoah. Though God is ever-present, what made the Shoah seem as if that is not true was simply Nazi anti-Semitism. This is explained further in “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah”, which was written by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in 1998 and is a part of the teaching of respect:

“…At the level of theological reflection, we cannot ignore the fact that not a few in the Nazi party not only showed aversion to that idea of divine Providence at work in human affairs, but gave proof of a definite hatred directed at God himself. Logically, such an attitude also led to a rejection of Christianity, and a desire to see the Church destroyed or at least subjected to the interests of the Nazi state.” (We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, pg. 9-10).

To conclude, I think it only makes sense to mention one person in particular who truly portrayed God’s presence at Auschwitz—Maximilian Kolbe. His noble act of taking the place of a prisoner sent to die is one of pure love. He loved until the very end of his life, and Father Manfred even said that they Nazis may have killed him, but they could not kill his love. I cannot help but be reminded of the verse from 1 John which reads, “Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.” Those last three words are definitely something to reflect on, especially when pondering the presence of God during the Shoah. If God did happen to be present at all at Auschwitz, which I believe He was, then it was most certainly evident through the selfless love of Kolbe and other martyrs of the Shoah.

The cell of Maximilian Kolbe, with candles in remembrance of him placed there by Saint Pope John Paul II. As the place where Kolbe was killed by lethal injection after living without food or water for two weeks (because of his faith in God) is truly a sacred place, especially for Christians.

Read More

Look Me In The Eyes

Millions of people with ordinary lives had everything taken from them under the rule of Nazi Germany—their families, their belongings, and ultimately their humanity. They were even given numbers as a replacement of their names. The Nazis purposely treated them as if they were animals, and stripped them of all rights they had as humans. The one right they were given, according to these Nazis, was the right to die.

Throughout this week in Poland, we as a group have seemed to create a unique emphasis on eyes. This was very apparent at first in pictures of the prisoners at each of the camps. Our tour guide, Lidia, would ask us, “What do you see in their eyes? Do you see fear? Or sadness?” at first, I thought “Yes, they were mostly likely about to be murdered, so of course they are afraid”. Lidia reminded us that the Jewish people were told they were moving to the East to start a new life, so they packed their clothes and belongings and imagined this new life that they were promised. Perhaps I had failed to truly look those photographed soon-to-be prisoners in the eyes, as I would have instead seen the utter confusion that they felt.

Pictured here are Jews walking to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. At this point, they were still ordinary people in ordinary clothes, with no idea where they were going. You can truly feel the emotion behind this image by looking into their eyes and seeing the ordinary confusion.

Another time that this concept of deep eye contact with another person came up was during the third of Father Manfred’s lectures, in which he talked about God’s presence, or lack of presence, at Auschwitz. He talked about the importance of relationships in our lives, and referred to those relationships as our responsibility. The best way, he said, to develop and to deepen relationships in our lives is to look into somebody’s eyes rather than at them. By doing that, he said we are looking at something behind the eyes and inevitably forming a deeper connection with that person.

Upon creating deep, meaningful relationships with people after looking through the windows to the soul, we instantly recognize their humanity. No matter their occupation, race, or religion, they are humans and we can connect with them even just on that level. Christians know that, according to the Bible, all humans are made in the image and likeness of God. This is emphasized in Nostra Aetate, which we reviewed in class. Nostra Aetate is the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions. Here is the final paragraph from the document:

The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to "maintain good fellowship among the nations" (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men,(14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.(15)

In conclusion, we can clearly see the lack of respect for the humanity of the Jewish people by the Nazis during the Shoah. With the fact that this could all happen again since it already happened once, it can be prevented by simply forming deep connections with others, who may happen to be different than us, and looking them into their eyes and thus into their soul. Hopefully this will allow better understanding between people and ultimately create peace.

Pictured here are the photographs of the prisoners at Auschwitz I. Seeing these, I remembered that there were real people behind the numbers, and there are real emotions and feelings behind those eyes.

Read More