Sorry for no pictures, but this post is already really long and it's really late at night right now. I'll have pictures up soon!
So yesterday we went to a concentration camp called
Sachsenhausen. I would be the student that everybody will be complaining about
waiting for an extra hour before sending a search party. I guess it was because
I got lost in the stories of all the different people. It took me forever to
look through the different accounts of what happened there. I have been to Holocaust
museums multiple times in the past, but I’ve never actually stepped foot where
it all happened. Just having the opportunity to picture yourself in a place
where so much evil occurred was very humbling. For those of you who don’t know,
Sachsenhausen did have a large amount of Jews and other “undesirables” but most
of the prisoners were for political reasons. Listening to the stories of
brutality from the Nazi’s was horrifying, but what I found most interesting was
tower E. The tower was like any other tower surrounding the camp, but this one
had an exhibit within its walls. The exhibit focused on the residents of
Orienburg (the town where Sachsenhausen was located) and their actions
surrounding the camp. What really shocked me was that the residents did in fact
know about the camp. When the prisoners were transported to the camp, they were
forced to march from the train station in the center in town to the camp 1.5
miles away. They marched straight through the town. There were accounts from
villagers expressing their feelings when these events occurred. At first they
were told by the government that the prisoners were enemies of the state who
caused problems in other parts of the country. Due to this, the residents
actually lined the streets to yell and jeer at the inmates as they marched
past. But eventually, word started getting out about the mistreatment of the
prisoners that were there. But no one did anything about it. Sure there were a
few people that would sneak bread and other parcels of food into the camp for
the greatly malnourished individuals that were there, but on a large scale, nothing
was really tried to help end this mistreatment. And it wasn’t like the
prisoners were out of sight either. Many would have to come and work on their
hard labor projects in the streets of Orienburg. But the really shocking part
was the interview on the practicing church in the town and its interactions
with Sachsenhausen. Their story was basically the same as a regular
townsperson. They knew about the problem. They knew that there was
mistreatment, yet they did little to nothing in terms of action to stop these
acts from happening. They priest of the church even got to go into the camp to
administer communion to a member in the jail of the camp. He got to see
first-hand the horrors of what was occurring, and afterwards, he and his
congregation began praying for the prisoners. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe
prayer is the most powerful thing a Christian can do. However, I also feel that
God gives us the ability to act when we see evil occurring in the world. Now I
don’t know what they could have done to rectify this awful situation, but I
feel that when such an evil is occurring, along with prayer, we as a church
body should be active in stopping such evil. We have been given the truth and
an ability to discern good from evil, and I believe that it is our job to make
sure to do all we can to make sure that good triumphs over evil. I realize that
we will never be able to truly triumph over evil and that only Jesus will be
able to defeat evil for good, but I feel that as followers of him we are charged
with trying to make good overcome evil. So this is why I was so shocked at how
the townspeople declined to do anything to help these victims. This is also
what worries me if we don’t learn from our mistakes. We can’t close our eyes to
injustice. And if we see injustice, we can’t let ourselves be held back due to
the belief that we can’t make a difference, or the fear of what would happen to
us. We can see plainly what that type of thinking resulted in here at
Sachsenhausen. We must be willing to take the risk to ask God what we should do
to stop such evil, and then act on this petition. And God-willing, we may be
able to prevent this evil from occurring again.
As you can
see, this was a pretty moving experience for me. I definitely feel like we have
a distinct duty as a church family to fix injustices in the world. From
poverty, to sickness, to food and water distribution, we have a job to go into
the world and feed the hungry, quench the thirst of the thirsty, clothe the
naked, shelter the homeless, visit the convicted, the list goes on and on. The
list seems overwhelming, but we must just remember to keep praying and seeking
the will of God, and through that prayer and seeking, our eyes may be opened to
the hurting, broken and dying, and our minds, skills, and bodies may be used to
overcome evil and spread good to the world. And it doesn’t have to take place
in across the world either. As can be seen in the past, evil is present in our
hometowns too. We must be focused on helping wherever we can, however we can.
So, there’s
my reflection/rant. Sorry it’s so long, but as you can see this little excursion
impacted me quite a bit. We’re having a great time here and can’t wait for more
adventures! Please keep praying for us!
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