Sharing a Story; The Reason I study the Holocaust.

On Footsteps, we have asked people to share their stories, their connection to the Holocaust. Of course not everyone has a direct connection, we have grandchildren of SS guards, of Nazi Criminals... Everyone from different backgrounds sharing their stories. So I thought, instead of paining everyone with my story via Footsteps, I would post it here, it's nothing special of course, I have no direct connection to the Holocaust. I just feel a deep sense of meaning when I think of my life, working against the rise of racism and making sure that this never happens again. 

This is a brief story of how I came to be part of a wonderful team, and started to fight against the rise of hatred in this world. 

Post-Poland Thoughts

After a few days of being alone, having time to think, to be in this shell (in other words my bedroom) just to reflect on the week which has just past us. I realise there is still so much hatred in the world, still so much discrimination, even to people who are just wanting to make a difference. The power of having a surname which represents something, even if you are nothing like your relatives. 

 Not knowing what the future will bring excites me a little, hoping that some how we can make a difference, that we can educate people in such a way that they also feel the same as we do, that we want to make a brighter and safer future, which doesn’t involve hating because of who we are. We all, this week changed, even if it was only a small percentage of us that did, I already feel myself wondering what more we could do, what other things might help even that tiny bit to step forward, just one more step, to raise awareness and stop this hatred which swarms through our world like the plague. 

Poland; Journal Entries.

I am finding it hard, too hard to speak of how I feel, unable to talk about my own deep feelings on what I saw, I thought I would post sections of what I wrote during the week, of course a lot of personal moments have been taken out for personal and private reasons... This is probably the easiest way for me, to express my feelings.

This isn't going to be extremely historic, I already know. It's more about my own emotions, feelings and thoughts throughout the trip.

Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schmerzhafte Trauer

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the camp which is so vast you can spend hours walking round and still miss so much of the history of this dreadful place. The gates were covered by the tent so that is why there is no photo of the snow covered gates which symbolise the whole camp in the modern day photographs. Of course we were there for the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, something which I felt honoured to attend, standing in the freezing cold for 4 hours was nothing, as we kept saying 'we are cold in 8 layers... imagine the poor prisoners who hardly wore any clothing at all' It really does make you feel emotionally unstable, just walking through this vast land.