By Well.. this is a reflection i had after visiting Dachau, a concentration camp in Germany… but i figured i would post it anyways.
Dachau was a horrible place to visit, absolutely terrifying in the realities that existed in this place and in many other places all over Germany. it is so hard not to be weighed down by the darkness. It is easy, and necessary, to be caught in grief and to fill yourself with bitterness and hatred. This needs to happen for a time, but how can we move on while still in this mindset? Though is feels wrong and impossible to do so, it is important to look at the places that light has pierced the darkness–where the good has won and the evil has been pushed aside. i was not particularly conscious in doing this. i walked through the museum at the end of the day, after seeing the torture buildings, the barracks, etc. i walked through becoming more and more unwilling to take in any more awful information or view anymore terrible photographs. i was not intending to see any good (and even now it feels strange to claim that there is good), but i came across a panel about art and expression in the camp. There are documented songs written by prisoners, there were poems written, art created, and codified letters sent. These prisoners, though significantly oppressed still found enough of themselves left to create something pure and something untainted by the SS or the Nazis. These were tiny breakthroughs of the human spirit. it was art for both message and sanity. it is amazing to me that these people could still sing, could still create–these raw human expressions show a strength greater than the oppression and violence of the SS
This tremendous strength is only recognizable at an individual level. the general ‘big’ picture does not reveal these individual victories and, of course, is impossible to accept as good–it was not. but i think that this is one way by which we can find hope and an ability to continue on as humans who do good despite the evils that can exist within us. the power of response is what makes a person great.
anyways… this is me trying to find hope and victory in the oppression of Nazi Germany. hope it makes sense.