The highlight of Saturday was enjoying a concert at the
Wartburg. I was delighted to enjoy a concert that took place in the Festsaal –
a hall with remarkable acoustics. The music featured works from Haydn,
Stravinsky and Beethoven. Concerts are a fantastic way to experience culture in
a different country, without the language barrier!
On Sunday we started the day with worship, Gottesdienst, at
the St. Georgen Kirche. The service was a Bach Kantate. St. George is the
church where J.S. Bach was baptized. Bach was born in Eisenach and spent part
of his childhood growing up there. This week a girl was baptized, so I got to
see what the ritual of practicing this sacrament is like in a different
culture.
Sunday was a rainy and dreary day, so we went along with the
tone of the weather. We took a trip to Weimar in the afternoon to visit
Buchenwald. Although it was a far cry from a joyful afternoon trip, it was a very
meaningful experience. As someone who is interested in peace and justice
issues, it was important for me to gain perspective on the history of the
Holocaust.
Buchenwald was a concentration camp. It was technically a
labor camp and not an extermination camp, but people still lost their lives
there. Even if people survived physically, I could only imagine how the
de-humanization of it all impacted their mental and emotional well-being. While
it is hard to face, it is important to keep evidence of such atrocious history available
so that people can look back and understand the lesson to be learned.
One of the first things we saw at Buchenwald was the gate in
the entryway to the camp. On the door it reads, “Jedem das Seine,” which means,
“To each his own.” At the end of our visit, Dr. Kleinhans pointed out a
memorial that offers a glimmer of hope. The memorial had engraved all the
different nationalities of victims at Buchenwald. This memorial is always kept
at a constant 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, to represent the common humanity.
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