Unforgettable Things I Have Heard

November 27, 2023

While backpacking across Europe in 1971 with four close friends, we visited the Nazi concentration camp, Dachau. The camp operated until April 1945 and is now a historical site and sacred pilgrimage for thousands each year. All of our parents lived through WWII, so our day at Dachau was profound. It was in the nearby town of Dachau that I heard something I will never forget.

Trudging through the camp, we visualized the untold misery in those grounds and walls, especially in the human warehouses, the shooting wall and its blood trenches, the gas chambers and cremation ovens. With every step into the camp, the holocaust became startlingly more real and more horrifying. Our nostrils were filled with the stench of blood and burning bodies. Several of us were so nauseated we couldn’t eat. It took us three days to put the horror out of our minds. For those three days, we said very little to each other.

Our bodies were affected, but our minds were even more affected. We were overcome with sadness that human beings could commit such unspeakable horrors to men, women and children just like themselves except for religion. As college kids, WWII’s gruesome crimes seemed way in the past. But as we aged and matured, we realized that these horrors occurred only twenty-six years before we set foot on those grounds. Indelible impressions were made on our souls. We who shared that visit still talk about it today.

What was the unforgettable thing I heard in town? We talked with other young people in our youth hostel the evening after our day in the camp. Some were from Germany and backpacking around Europe. At one point in the conversation, we asked the German youths how it was for their parents to have been involved in WWII. Their response was silence, followed by a change of subject.

The words unspoken were unforgettable.

Is it possible that our own highly civilized society could turn a blind eye to oppression and genocide? Have we?

Inquiry: Why were the words unspoken? Would such silence be unforgettable to you? If so, why?

Dear God,

Please have mercy on all of us who have unspeakable words. Amen.

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