auschwitz

mood:sad

Sometimes people ask me why I chose to minor in history, or why I enjoy studying history so much.

I don't usually watch Oprah. However, yesterday and today she focused on a topic that we should all remember.

Oprah interviewed a survivor of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp. This is a very personal subject for me, because like many Americans my age, both of my grandfathers fought in WWII. My mother's father, who is still living, fought in the Pacific theater, primarily at the island of Guadalcanal, and he has since told the story of what he experienced both orally and in print. However, my father's father (who passed away of liver cancer 10 years ago) fought in the European theater, and saw images that were so shocking that he was never able to talk about what he had experienced. We don't know exactly what his unit did during the war - what battles he was in, and so on - but based on the things we found in his house after he died, we are certain that he was involved in the liberation of a concentration camp. Many of my family members believed (based on some photographs we found) that he aided in the liberation of Auschwitz. I do not believe this is correct, because history has recorded that Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet soldiers; however, I do believe it is possible that my grandfather somehow witnessed Auschwitz, likely soon after it was liberated by the Soviets. Instead, I believe my grandfather was involved in the liberation of Treblinka or Dachau.

Auschwitz was the site of the one single largest mass murder in the history of mankind. At Auschwitz, mass numbers of people were systematically tortured and killed. What happened at Auschwitz was unspeakable. What happened at Auschwitz should never have happened. And yet, because of our own sinfulness, it was inevitable.

After World War II, everyone said "Never again". Never again would the world allow such genocide to occur. Never again.

Yet it did occur again. In Korea, in Vietnam, in Bosnia, in Rwanda, in Sudan, it is still occuring.

My heart cries out that this should never happen again. Yet in my head, I know that it will. It should never happen again. But in my head, I know that it will happen again, and again, and again, until the day of Christ's return.

Sometimes people ask me why I choose to study history. I study history because we must remember what we have done. We must remember; otherwise we will make the same mistakes that were made before. We must remember; otherwise America will no longer be free.