The main thing the group did today was go to the concentration camp, Dachau. Some of the feelings I experienced were expected, others not. I expected to feel heartache for what had happened to the people imprison, I did not expect to feel as angry as I did. I expected to feel relieved that the horrible things done by the Nazis are over, I did not expect to feel like humanity hasn’t come very far.
Not to downplay the autrocities done by the Nazi regime, but I started wondering why Western society seems to ignore the other terrible things humans have done to each other, not just in the past but in the present day. I think we often would like to believe that *our* family would be one of the families to hide Jewish people, but at the same time we ignore the needy in our own city. Oftentimes for me it circles around to slavery; many people don’t think human trafficking is a big problem, or if they do they assume it’s an “over there” type of problem that they cannot do anything about. The fact is that in our country, in our state, even in Grand Rapids, tragedies like sex trafficking occur regularly.
I think to truly have a changed heart by seeing what the Jewish people went through in the Nazi Holocaust, we cannot look past the injustices when they happen right in front of us. I’m not sure how, but I truly believe this is a call for me to try to do something to change the world I’m in, even if it’s only in a small way.