Growth.

I was reading the May 2014 edition of the Smithsonian magazine and an article stuck with me “The White Veil,” by Ron Rosenbaum, an interview of Peter Matthiessen.  I don’t know, maybe I was in a philosophical moment when I read the article, but the following portion hung and had a lasting impression

“One time we went in nice weather in mid-June.  And it was very different.  At the ash pits, where they dumped the ash, where people died, the vegetation was trying to come back.  Even at the height of winter, I was astonished the first time I saw it.  There was snow on the public crematorium.  And you see little deer prints.  And little lichens, mosses, ferns, coming back in the bricks right in the gas chambers.  Life is coming back.  You cannot help but recognize the extraordinary life force that will crop up virtually anywhere.  They’ve found it even on the bottom of the seafloor, where the tectonic plates shift-sulfurous burning, totally toxic, way down in the darkness-and there’s life there.”

This response by Matthiessen was to the question “How does one respond to the appearance of life amid a realm of death?”  A question relating to one of the three trips Matthiessen took to Auschwitz concentration camp, in Poland between 1996 and present day.  When I hear of Auschwitz, Dachau, the Nazi’s and the Holocaust in general, I do not think of the aspect of “Life coming back.”  I think about the horrendous horror that took place and the countries and people that looked away and did nothing because it was too much to handle or out of the realm of understanding.  But, how powerful to visit a place of death and see new growth.  What does this say?

I think about the overwhelming acts that go against God and take place today like genocide, starvation and those that endure violent acts, like rape, physical and mental abuse.  I watch the news and wonder how, as a human race, we can recover from such atrocious acts.  How someone can kill another human being simply because they can physically excise the act.  I find myself struggling at times to look through the glasses of being a Christian, needing to remind myself that anything is possible through God, through Jesus Christ.  And then, I read this article, and I read about the growth coming back even after such murder.

The list is short of events that has happened with such a horrendous result as with the Holocaust.  The amount of betrayal, murder, political involvement, human error, disrespect, disregard, indifference and simply vivacity shown to eliminate a human race is at its most profound during the Holocaust.  The Holocaust, an attempt to simply decimate anyone that is different, Jews, Christians, gypsies, homosexuals and people of color.  And although this was not during my time on earth, I’ve visited the Holocaust museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and my youth group at St. Benedicts (Pontiac, Michigan) made learning about the Holocaust mandatory in addition we talked about it in school.  A speaker came to my youth group that had been at a concentration camp and I’ll never forget seeing the tattoo of numbers on his forearm, meant to remove his human dignity and replace it with degradation.  So again, Matthiessen visits Auschwitz and he see’s life amidst what was once a place of destruction of life.

This place hasn’t forgotten.  The life source of who was once there, has breathed life into other forms, “lichens, mosses and ferns,” and the deer that now leaves its hoof prints.  We should not forget either.  Life has been preserved amidst the destruction.  Honoring those lost should be through never forgetting, never allowing this atrocity to happen again.  We are seeing and have been seeing signs for some time, in places like Syria and the Sudan.  Our news is showing distressed faces on TV of those in refugee camps unable to care for themselves or their families because they fled their home in an effort to survive or in some cases simply outlive the oppressor.  We are seeing lives lost for no other reason than an overriding force has determined who may live and who must die.

Why am I writing this you must be asking?  To do honest, I can’t be for certain.  I believe the Holy Ghost is moving me to write about this passage I read in the Smithsonian magazine, to share my thoughts on the atrocities I’m witnessing on television and through the internet.  Although I feel powerless unable to decide how I could assist, maybe my words can help.