My parents used to live in Germany and we were lucky enough to get to visit them on two occasions when they lived there. One of the most profound experiences of my life was when we visited Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line for the gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mom, doesn’t know where she is going. the mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over the child’s eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum, they do not whisk by the photo in a hurry. they pause. They almost feel the pain, I know I did. And deep inside of me I felt myself saying, “O God, don’t let this be all that there is.” Don’t let me live in a world that is without the supernatural, without miracles, without hope and a God and a future…
Each of those camps leaves a lasting impression. Of Dachu, I recall the shoes the most, and how they were stacked so high in such a long corridor. It’s an experience you don’t forget.
It feels weird to click ‘like’ when this isn’t a post to ‘like’ so much as appreciate. Thank you for writing it.
We need to keep saying that prayer becuase what we are doing to fellow men, the planet and other sentient beings is that we are creating another holocaust.