Today we witnessed Treblinka, a once nightmarish locale plagued by the horrors of the Holocaust. When we first arrived at the former camp, however, we were greeted with a lovely scene of trees and growth, as if the earth was showing us the hope one needs to find out of this dark place.
Our excursion started with a hike towards the memorial, which was accompanied by a small dog. Our new friend followed us throughout our walk, and so a few of us decided to embrace him, calling him Max. When I first saw the memorial, my mouth dropped; I am sure I speak on behalf of everyone. The size of the monument in the middle and the shear number of stones burst from the ground like fireworks on the First of July.
While walking through, stone by stone, I began feeling alone; a sense of hopelessness overcame me. I became lost in the field of stones, which I sense victims must have felt in their short time at Treblinka. I tried to seek answers to the questions that popped in my head. I tried to find hope within the site, but nothing came up. ‘Unbelievable’ is too small a word to represent the scene we were walking through.
As we carved paths through the stones, I could not help but reflect on how one ideology – hate – created this place. Treblinka, Poland will never be the same based on the events that took place on this site over 70 years ago. On this very site, I lost members of my own family; members who I never had the opportunity to meet. I realized that where I stood cold-blooded killers murdered my family.
The message I am trying to grapple with is to stop things like this before they get out of hand. When 800 000 people die because of one ideology, there is a problem. We must stop the famous phrase, “history repeats itself” because we as a human race have the power to stop this kind of history from happening again. One voice can turn into a million voices, and one arm can turn into a million arms working towards a single goal – we are called to love.
-Matthew C.
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| From our wonderful prayer service today, led by Conan and Luke, a very powerful message of hope from Ms. G and Claire. Love, the basic human value that connects us is all the people at Treblinka needed, and exactly what they did not get. |
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| A dead rose. This type of rose was scattered everywhere around the memorial. It is a sign of life, death and beauty. No matter the age, beauty never dies. A rose is beautiful no matter how it looks and you can say the same thing for Jews. They are not rats or a disease as anti-Semitic views would dictate, they are children of God, and therefore respected. Roses scattered the memorial showing off their beauty and like the rose, true beauty is not determined by race or religion |
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