“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana
I am just back from a visit to Krakow, the beautiful southern Polish city steeped in history. You may be aware that the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau lie only about an hour outside Krakow. Before leaving Ireland, my husband and I debated long and hard whether we should visit especially as our twelve-year-old son, Luca, would be with us. In fact, Luca said that he wanted to go to try to understand what had happened. We were obviously concerned that exposing him to such horror might be too much for his young mind and cause him trauma. When discussing whether to visit a good friend said, “Fiona, you think way too much about things.” That is true, I do but it is an occupational hazard for me; when you see the results of personal histories it makes you think about your own choices both as an individual but even more so as a parent.
We did go to Auschwitz – Birkenau -it was beyond horrific. I was sick to my stomach quite literally. Luca was deeply upset by what he saw as were we all. How could any human being not be?
As we walked through the camps with literally hundreds of other tourists the words, “I am so sorry, I am so sorry,” kept running through my mind. I know of course that I am not personally responsible for the unimaginable tragedies that happened there, but I was and still am deeply sorry on behalf of humanity.
The above quote by philosopher George Santayana is written over one of the huts the Jewish prisoners and prisoners of war slept in, four or five people in one small bunk. It was heartbreaking to see the reality of the conditions 75 years after the war ended and the camp was liberated. I believe places have energy and the vile energy in Auschwitz was like nothing I have ever experienced before. There were moments when I wanted to turn back and run as far away as I could like just before we went into the gas chambers, it was actually Luca’s courage that helped me to go in.
However, if Jewish survivors such as Viktor Frankl and our very own Tomi Reichental (who lives in Ireland and whom I have the good fortune to interview soon for my forthcoming book) can find it in their hearts to be strong, to be emotionally resilient, to attempt to find meaning in such vicious cruelty and to spend their lives trying to educate and inform others then we must learn from them and help them to keep the memories alive.
On a collective level, we must remember the Holocaust to ensure that we do our best to spread love and not hatred, to teach our children to be kind, tolerant and without prejudice. On a more subjective level, learning from your own past is also essential so that the negative parts will not be repeated.