Student and Alumni Poland Trips

From Barb:  In spite of wonderful weather, a great group, working alongside incredible Albion College students to clean up a Jewish cemetery, great food, and wonderful guides, a shadow follows this trip. How do you begin to comprehend the horrific attempted genocide of the Jewish people by the German Nazis?

Today we visited the Auschwitz I concentration/extermination camp near Oswiecim and Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II. I was saddened when we visited Treblinka in Warsaw last Monday. Treblinka was also a Nazi death camp. But, somehow today’s excursion through the real places that millions of people marched to their death rendered a deep blow to my heart and soul. I cannot begin to explain how I felt … a mixture of disbelief, horror, shame, and confusion. So many things run through my mind and heart. Downloading the pictures my husband took today ran another sword through my soul. I felt guilty just thinking about being interested in what these innocent people suffered through. This was not like visiting Alcatraz and finding it fascinating as to how the prisoners might have escaped. They were convicted criminals; but the people targeted by the Nazis had done nothing to deserve this treatment. They suffered far more than physical torture; theirs is a story of a fight to maintain dignity in the depths of hopelessness. “Never Again,” posted at the Treblinka Memorial is the best I can settle for as I can’t handle the rest. I leave it to God to do that.

Plaque at Auschwitz International Memorial