PT_Mills_Europe17_8231
Auschwitz
Oświęcim, Poland
I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2016, just before the U.S. presidential election. It was my second time visiting the sites, the first being 20 years prior,
when I was a student in Prague. On both occasions I was struck by the stark contrast between the knowledge of the atrocities that had taken place on these sites,
and the incredible light and beauty the existed there on the days I visited. I thought back to my professor, whose father was imprisoned in a concentration camp.
He survived and wrote a book about the enduring spirit of the people he knew. He felt hope, despite his circumstances, and it was that hope
that lives on for me in the sunrise and the frost, the softness of the colors, and the quiet. I will never forget, but I will always try to focus on the light, rather than the darkness.