A Walk to Remember

When it comes to the Holocaust it settles very deep in my heart. I have done a lot of research on the Holocaust and have taken a class at PLU on the topic. Many people have an idea on what actually happened during the Holocaust but when you study it in detail you understand it on a completely different level.

While in Berlin we took a tour through various different parts of the city and we came across something that really hit home for me. We approached these tall and short cement cubes lined up in rows extending over these hills. The tour guide said that it was a memorial for the Jewish individuals who lost their lives in the Holocaust. As I walked between the cement I couldn't help but think that each stone represented the numbers of lives lost in each camp, ghetto, street or home. As the stones got taller the higher number of lives lost and I wept. The memorial was not on flat ground it had hills with different ways to get out and each one leading to a different fate and a different place, this was the same for those Jew's who lost their lives in the unfortunate event. Although there is no right or wrong answer this memorial is ment to me interpreted differently to each person. But in each interpretation I have heard thus far each one is in rememberance of those lives lost.

The next day we went to a concentration camp in a city very close to Berlin. This was a very impactful thing to see because it made things a reality. Everything I have learned about the Holocaust was only done through books, lectures, the internet and papers. When I stepped foot on the grounds of the camp I could only think about who's footsteps I walked in. Thousands of Jew's walked through that camp not knowing what was to come next and some even lost their lives. As I looked out at the camp I could picture what happened there and what it may have felt like to be a innocent Jewish individual being worked to death every day. The wooden bunkbeds stacked to the ceiling knowing fully well that 3 to 4 Jew's shared just one of those beds. Seeing the places they lived for years not having any idea where they were, what day it was, what time it was or even when they would be able to leave. The hardest part for me was to actually see the place where the Nazi's did their dirty work at the camp and some of the devices they used. This part of the trip I will never forget and I will be able to share my knowledge and my story about the camp to help remember those lives lost during the Holocaust.