During our last three days in Poland,
I had the opportunity to walk through a place that nobody should ever have to experience.
A place that took so many lives, and tells so many untold stories.
AUSCHWITZ
Archway into camp translates Work Makes One Free
This is the site of the biggest concentration camp for the Jews during the Holocaust. Too many innocent people lost their lives – their identity and lives were completely stripped from them as they were forced to be separated from their loved ones, unsure if they would ever see each other again. They were deceived and lied to…and ended up walking into a death trap that few survived!
It is a site I will never forget. Walking around the roads and through the buildings (blocks) that the Jews walked was not easy. So much came to mind. How easy would it have been to loose hope? To just want to give up? What would I have done?
When I went to Auschwitz, the sun was shining, the fall leaves were lining the ground, ma
king the place appear to be something beautiful – when indeed it was anything but! My heart sunk in the few short hours I spent there, only imagining the darkness, pain, stench, hunger, brokenness and depression that must have been sinking into the men, women and children that “lived” in worse conditions than I could even imagine!
king the place appear to be something beautiful – when indeed it was anything but! My heart sunk in the few short hours I spent there, only imagining the darkness, pain, stench, hunger, brokenness and depression that must have been sinking into the men, women and children that “lived” in worse conditions than I could even imagine!I walked through the barracks, saw the rail tracks be an entrance and not an exit, watched the sun set over the (at one time) electric fence, and listened to our amazing tour guide, yet I still don’t understand or know all that took place here. It is an experience I will never forget, and something I am so glad I took the time to open my eyes and my heart to.
November 1st rolled around and most things in Poland were closed and ran on a Holiday schedule – it was All Saints Day. A Day to “remember” the lives of the dead. Candles and flowers marked the graves of loved ones. I was told that the candles burn for many hours, and are placed on the grave so that the departed souls can find their way “home” through the darkness.
It was a breathtaking site, waling through the graveyard – something I would have NEVER done at home – and now here I am, embracing the “beauty” before me in a unique way.
The candles set off a glow in the darkness. The cold evening air made me shiver – yet I was captivated. Why is so much money and time spent remembering the DEAD when so often we are not willing to spend our time and money with those around us that are ALIVE! Although the candles gave of light and heat, there was no life around me – other than those I was walking with.
Being able to see, do and experience things I can’t do at home is a blessing. Although they have been not the most “fun, adventurous and exciting” ways to spend my time, it was insightful, and time spent in solemn prayer, and appreciation for God in a whole knew way. God is always in the darkness, and as I experienced, where HE is, there is a beauty and a light!
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
John 12:46
