The Pain and the Wisdom of Reading About Auschwitz

Blog post by Education & Programs Intern David Agronin. To read  more posts by and about interns click HERE.

For much of my internship, I have been doing research on the experiences of Auschwitz survivors, and life at the infamous Nazi death camp in preparation for an upcoming exhibit at the museum. Obviously, I’ve encountered much disturbing information: the usual stories of torture, burned bodies, asphyxiated masses, destroyed families… a ruined culture. But out of the pain and horror experienced in the camps that I can barely imagine through the safe lens of research, I have been searching for something positive to get out of this. I hoped dearly for some kind of enlightenment or wisdom to be seen through the horror that might make the suffering of our kin anything but in vain. Could there be anything uplifting to learn take from all this?

This weekend, Elie Wiesel, an Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner died at the age of 87. The message of his life, through all of the suffering that he bore witness to, was to crusade tirelessly against oppression and injustice. It is not a message of revenge, or fear, but one of activism, and of compassion. With so much hate and destruction in the world, the answer is not to harden ourselves and answer it with more hatred, but to counter it and cancel it with loving-kindness and compassion. That someone could experience such a hell, and go on to live such a life, is truly a testament to the good that still thrives within each of our souls, and the revelation that, through pain and suffering, God is not dead, and does not abandon us.

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Interns jewish museum of maryland

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