Today we went to the Holocaust Memorial with the Johns Hopkins alumni group (thanks Anna!). It was amazing. We heard a holocaust survivor speak, he was 10 when it all hit Hungary. Listening to him speak brought me to tears several times. Despite the fact that a cousin actually bought his way out of Dauchau and came home to tell them of what was actually happening in the concentration camps, they couldn’t believe that it was real, and especially that it could happen to them. One visitor asked him during Q & A if he had come to understand what happened or why, or how it could happen. I found his answer brutally honest; he said no, he couldn’t understand, and despite the horrors that happened and the world’s vows to never let it happen again, he believes that it is human nature to destroy. He mentioned Rwanda and Darfur and the fact that genocide still happens as the world stands by and watches.
After going through the permanent exhibit, which if you have never been through, I highly recommend, we watched about 10 minutes of the survivor interviews at the end. Listening to these people tell their stories was too much, but at the same time it is good to know that there has been an effort to preserve these memories. Anna and I both commented about how amazing it is that there are people who actually believe that it didn’t happen. Go there, see the exhibits, the photos, the videos, and tell me that it didn’t happen.
The part of the experience that really got to me was the final exhibit we walked through, From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide. Despite the laws resulting from the Nuremberg Trials and outcry of a world against crimes against humanity, countries still stand by and watch thousands of people die at the hands of monsters in places like Rwanda and Darfur. It really hit home in the context of the Holocaust Museum; imagine having suffered through it 70 years ago only to see it happen again in your life time. I still do not understand how people can be so complacent in their lives to allow things like this to continue. No wonder the speaker today is so cynical about human nature.
I have decided that I need to become more active in my role against the genocide happening in Africa. Raising money helps, yes, and so does raising awareness. I sign the petitions to urge our government to intervene, to put political and economic pressure on others to do the same, but what have I really done? The speaker mentioned two specific people in his recollections this afternoon, and they were not friends, relatives, or even Jews. They were Christians whose job it was to supervise the apartment building where he and his family lived, to make sure the doors were locked except during the two hours they had to go outside and so their shopping. But these two people opened the doors for them, first to allow his father to come in and hide when his work group was destined to be shipped out a concentration camp the next day, and next to allow him and his mother to leave and go into hiding before their building was raided and the inhabitants shipped out to the camps. He said they may have not done anything heroic, or thought that they did, but the small kindness saved his life, and the life of his parents.
Do I not have the same desire, the same responsibility to do what I can, whatever it may be, to help end the crimes occurring right now? How can I look at the faces in the pictures, see them on the news, and respect myself as a human being, especially as a Christian, and think that it’s ok that maybe someone else will help them, that it isn’t that bad, that they are just too far away for me to be able to do anything about it? What kind of person would that make me?
The first thing that popped into my head was my desire to adopt from Africa. I have been keeping tabs on the programs available in war torn regions, such as Rwanda, the Congo, and Uganda. Is this the reason that God has placed this desire in my heart for as long as I can remember? Is this why I am unable to have my own children, to help steer me in this direction? I don’t know, but it seems like too much of a coincidence for me to ignore.
I have no clear idea what my next move will be, but I have plenty to think about. Please pray for me to hear God’s voice and to help us to decide what our next step will be.
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