Witnessing the Silence of Auschwitz

The Role of the Chronicler

The role of a chronicler, as I understand it, is to tell stories in such a way that readers can understand, at least to some extent, what the writer has seen and experienced.

During Mass at the Divine Mercy shrine today, just before visiting the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, the preacher, Brother Christopher Fadok, said:

“God only knows what we would have done had we been there. How many heroes are there among us? With that thought, I pause here in this holy place simply to beg God for His mercy! For the sake of your sorrowful passion, Lord Jesus, bless us with heroic virtue in the face of evil. It is tempting to pretend that the evil people insidiously committing their evil deeds are not us. They are the others. But I recall the words of the Russian dissident of the Soviet era, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote in his work, The Gulag Archipelago, that he had gradually learned in life that ‘…the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.’”

At Auschwitz

I was with them in Auschwitz.

I have nothing more to add, except this simple statement of fact.

I accompanied them in their pain, feeling the pain myself.

I saw their focused, moved faces, which showed no response when they heard about the more than one million victims. And their hands, clenched around rosary beads, because the place demanded prayer.

In my head, I repeated the question that the preacher had asked a few hours earlier:

“God only knows what we would have done had we been there. How many heroes are there among us?”

Too Painful to Face

The role of a chronicler, as I understand it, is to tell a story in such a way that the reader can understand, at least a little, what the writer has seen and experienced.

However, I recall a commentary on one of the paintings depicting the crucifixion. The painter shows us Jesus, but his friend, St. John, has his back to us. The commentator concludes: the face would be too painful.