In the spring of 2018 I led a group of pilgrims on a tour of Poland, my father’s family homeland for centuries.
Under a sunny sky we spent a day in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the first death camp my father, age 13, was sent to, and survived. So many others didn’t. I walked around the empty barracks, hugged the old birch trees that gave this factory its name and collected spring flowers that were rising out of the ground. The bouquet, souls of the dead in temporary bloom, survived a week in my hotel room, smiling at the Polish sky in defiance.
On this day in 1945, Auschwitz was liberated and today the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Tomorrow we will celebrate the birthday of the trees and the eternal hope of nature – and our best human hopes for rising up above our fear and hate of others.
Etty Hillesum didn’t survive Auschwitz but her words and love did, flowers that never fade, a reminder to look up, on this and every holy day. May we look in, and up, and may all memories be blessings. Let’s do our best to really walk the talk of never again, for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
“Sometimes my day is crammed full of people and talk and yet I have the feeling of living in utter peace and quiet. And the tree outside my window, in the evenings, is a greater experience than all those people put together.”
– Etty Hillesum
