I’m currently sitting in my hotel room, Krakow, Poland. We are at the end of a short break away with my Sister and Brother-in-law and we have had a busy weekend. Krakow can be a place where there are many questions asked such as why and how? The actions taken by people here were, in one hand, despicable and, in another hand, heroic.
You get a sense of the situation, but really the full appreciation of the experience during WW2 and I can’t begin to imagine how people felt in these extreme conditions. With one horror story comes one story of bravery and selflessness, unfortunately, the result was the same, death.
The argument on history and destroying the bad memories of the past, is mute in Krakow. It has been established that the more people that can learn about the terrible things in the concentration camps, the better. This must never happen again.
Life does give us many lessons and I reflect, as a parent, how important it is for the lessons we give our children, to be meaningful and long lasting. It is, however, a survival method for the human race. I’m not talking about war but I’m talking about growing up in a diverse and difficult world, an ever changing world.
What was ok in the past is no longer permitted now and we need to share this and encourage our children, and the people around us, to learn from the past. Krakow is a fantastic, albeit an extreme, example of this.
So, as I prepare to return home and share the experience with my children, I am looking forward to encouraging them to visit Krakow and experience Auschwitz, Birkenau and the history around Krakow itself. It is good to know and to prevent things like this from ever happening again. It also has smaller, more poignant, lessons to take home.
Things like standing up for your rights, being fair, looking after the vulnerable and being charitable come to mind. There are many other things but the main one for me is just to be a good human being.
I will encourage them to watch Schindler’s List with us, even though there are some ‘irregularities’ it is still a good watch.
I hope you all have a fantastic week and are the ‘best version of you’ possible.
Be nice, care for others and be mindful of other people situations, they may be different from yours.