I’ll be candid: I don’t place much stock in Buzzfeed.  Their videos are pointed and intended to prod people into politics.  That is forgivable, but I have seen videos carrying their label clearly edited away from the truth and into a political slant.

That said, this video holds the power of truth and witness and just happens to carry a Buzzfeed logo. One hearing of this woman’s story will reveal that she has told it hundreds if not thousands of times.  The words roll off of her tongue in worn grooves, and her speech lacks the pauses of a person searching for words to match feelings.

Given the gravity of the subject matter, that she speaks with such natural finality says she has spent decades processing Auschwitz and what happened to her family there.  I could go on, and perhaps should if only to honor the memory of those lost in such a horrific haze of human lowness.  To that end:  anyone who takes a breath with the intent of depreciating the profound wickedness of Nazi concentration camps should choke on it.  The (surely coming) day mankind allows such a thing to be trodden upon is the day we begin our descent back into that same madness.

I want to talk about the end of this woman’s speech.  Today, the position of a victim holds more clout than it ever has.  Hate feels good.  Expressed anger exhilarates.  Slap a “Justice” label on that hatred and that’s a bandwagon anyone could jump on.  Is it any surprise, then, that this woman meets such resistance when she decides to abandon her position of ironic power?  When she picks herself up off the ground fifty years later and claims power over her oppressors in the form of forgiveness, why should anyone hold that against her?

Is it not incredible, the power that the oppressed hold over the oppressors when time has completed its revealing?  This power to declare someone forgiven or not forgiven does inspire awe and carries an emotional weight that could potentially be ignored by anyone except those to whom we direct it.  What’s more, though, is that it is a double edged sword of healing. The woman comments on how forgiveness brought HER peace, and helped heal her soul.  It seems to me like the world needs a lot more of forgiveness than it is getting these days.

That’s it for today.  Just a thought.

You are all delicious,

~m