Catholic science teacher blog

Just returned tonight to Krakow from a 2-day visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with my theology and science colleagues from around the country. It was a very powerful, yet emotionally exhausting trip to the Golgotha of the 20th century. In addition to visiting the 2 concentration(death) camps, we also heard from a 92-year old survivor about her experience as a child in Auschwitz. She received two standing ovations from our group after her 2 hour sharing of her story.

There are so many questions and thoughts that flood my mind as I think about what I learned and experienced there. I think it will take several more days of processing to arrive at a clear picture of what exactly God intended me to do with all the stories and ideas that were presented through the experience and the literature we read in preparation.

I think the first is a slogan printed on some of the gift store wear

“The 11th commandment–>. Don’t be a bystander”

The second was the nausea I felt at the cruelty toward human beings. I found myself praying to these victims of the Holocaust as I walked alongside the gas chamber and the crematorium and telling them in my heart “I am so sorry you had to suffer alone. You shouldn’t have had to suffer this cruelty…this should not have been your story…I want you to know that I see you. I see your pain and if I had been there, I would have tried to stop it…or I would have held you in my arms as you suffered.

I think this is also the message of our incarnate God to us….I see you as you suffer. I am there with you. This was not what I wanted for you. I think the fact that this is written on my heart to want to care for others…I think it comes from a God who wants to care for all of mankind.

I am still trying to process other things from this experience and so I will leave these for future blogs. For now, I will say that walking through the Golgotha of Auschwitz was excruciatingly troubling…because it’s a window into the cruelty of mankind….but the 92 year old woman as she told her story of pain and sorrow and great suffering as a child in the camp, she reminded us to hope as well. And if she can have hope having walked through hell, it’s a reminder that even in the darkest circumstances, hope is always still possible.