Every night in Hungary I have kept a journal describing all my experiences of that day. This allows me time to think about how these new experiences made me feel and give me a way to remember every detail from my trip. The other night, when I was reflecting about my day, there was one experience that stuck out to me.
As one of my new friends from SSG and I walked past an abandoned building, she turned to me and said something that confounded me. She casually stated that she learned that “part of the ghetto wall is in that abandoned building”. For a couple of seconds, I believed that I misheard her and then I heard other students behind us confirm her statement. At first, her comment did not really make sense to me and then I thought about it for a couple of minutes and realized what it really meant.
There was something in the words and the way my friend said them “that there was part of the ghetto wall” that triggered a deeper understanding. The students from SSG and Hungary, in general, are constantly reminded of the horrible history that occurred in their own country. It is not just another museum; it is the actual location that these terrors occurred.
Over the course of this program, we have visited many memorials about the Holocaust, and they are different than others I have been to. In America, you go to a memorial and think about the awful events that occurred, but they seem distant and out of reach of understanding. The places we have been to in Hungary are real. A couple of days ago we went to a shoe memorial, which was very depressing, but it is not until now that I am really comprehending what I am seeing. Another sight that made an impression on me but has a greater impact now is the stumble stones,
which are plaques on the sidewalk that mark any house that a Jew lived in and was taken from during World War II.
Whether it is the stumble stone marking where a Jewish family was taken from their home, the shoe memorial, or an abandoned building with the ghetto wall inside, Hungarians are constantly exposed to real historical evidence and actual places that awful things occurred. I believe that I still have a lot to understand, but I think that my friend’s simple comment brought me one step closer to comprehending the reality and evil in this world.
