Novena Day 4: And Then There Were None

On Facebook, the other day, there was a meme that stated, "If we offered a minute of silence for every victim of the Holocaust, we would be silent for eleven and a half years.  It got me wondering, if we offered a minute of silence for every victim of persecution and ethnic cleansing, would we ever speak again?

In college, I had the opportunity to spend six months in Austria to study political science and history.  As one of our study tours, we visited a small concentration camp. It is the only part of my three semesters abroad for which I have no photographs.  It seemed like too hallowed of ground to photograph. Also, I knew I would never forget being there-- twenty years later I can still feel the immense weight of sorrow that presses in on you and smell the stench of heinous deaths.  What struck me most, though, was the small strip of green grass that separated this place of horrors from a beautiful town.  Yards away people were eating and drinking, playing and building lives. They had to have known something was wrong.  Why didn't they stop it?  I'm sure some of it was fear, but I believe the true root of why the holocaust even occurred was indifference.  "They don't want me."  "That isn't in my backyard, let them take care of it themselves."  " I have my own life to live."

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