Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sachsenhausen, and thoughts (mostly thoughts)

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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