Auschwitz

Words can’t even begin to describe how I felt during this experience. I don’t think I’ve fully digested it myself to be capable of conveying something meaningful to other people but, I will try because I can’t keep what I saw and learned to myself. What I saw will forever be engraved in my heart. Auschwitz-Birkenau is just a small reminder of how evil humanity can become when they’ve lost sight of their true destinies that have been chosen by God.

Looking at the real locks of hair of normal human beings, normal GIRLS, teenage girls like me; looking at the tiny clothing of young babies and the named boxes just made me question whether God was alive at this point. I feel guilty for thinking so but I mean, we all have those moments when we doubt God and I think it simply proves how unfathomable he truly is. ‘His ways are not our ways’.

Anyway, as the day lingered on; I felt some sort of closure when the Rabbi who accompanied us on the trip; explained that the question to be posed isn’t ‘Where was God’ but is actually..’WHERE WAS MAN?’ It got me thinking, where are we when others need us? Why do we turn a blind eye and insist on conformity when it is so blatantly obvious that we conform to at times is wrong?

Despite the many differences between then and now, I discovered whilst waltzing around and observing real photos of real families who became victims, that we are extremely alike.

We have dreams and aspirations – just like they did.

We have families – just like they did.

We (may) have faith – just like they did.

By the time I put myself in their shoes, my head almost exploded out of anger and confusion over the detestable state humanity was and in many ways, still is in! I imagined being separated from my dear mother and never getting to see her again and my heart crumbled at the thought, and to think this was just  a nuance of what they suffered. I can’t say I fully understand WHY it all happened, which is one of my main aims; but if anything, I’ve learned to:

APPRECIATE MORE and JOURNEY ON in the hopes that through any little way possible, I can leave the world with a bit more peace than it has already.

‘To be salt and light in the world’-that is what I want to embody and I encourage you to do the same so that History Never Repeats Itself.

Peace&Love,

T

xx