The Scars Of USHMM Part Seven: Wounds That Time Can't Heal

I was just browsing on Thought Catalog, a website where writers write articles/listicles/peices about things important to them, when I came across an article about a girl who had written about a recent trip to Dachau in Munich. Her account was moving and as I read it, my own wounds surfaced again.

When you visit a somber place, it stays with you. I have images from USHMM that will be with me until I die. They prepare you for coming to the museum very thoroughly on their website, but what they don't do is tell you that while you can distract yourself with your day to day life that anything can trigger the memories. It's like PTSD without actually having gone through the Holocaust. You don't even feel a fraction of what the survivors feel and yet the feelings cripple you.

You grieve, then your wounds close up for a while, and when you least expect it they burst open and the vicious never ending cycle begins yet again. This is how a lot of Holocaust survivors live except their level of grief is incomprehensible to us living and growing up in this era.

People process different things differently. As you know, I went to the museum with my mom and I've wondered how she processed it. I was in tears for a good bit of time after we left but she wasn't so I wondered if she was processing differently (and perhaps more effectively) than I was while I just lost it.

This Sunday, we start the annual week the USHMM calls the Days of Remembrance due to Yom Ha'Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Day in the Jewish calendar) being observed Wednesday. The Museum has lots of events and programs during this time, including an online program where you can send a survivor volunteer at the museum a message to say you'll remember. I have done so, and I encourage you to do so too. It'd mean a lot to those who lost so much not so long ago.

This line of work is undoubtedly the most important thing I have done in my life. I knew I wanted to do more in 2015 than I had in the two years previous for the cause and I think I'm reaching that goal. It has been the hardest war I've ever fought but it's worth every time the memories come back because I know a whole generation of people who won't be here much longer need people like me to tell the stories when they can't.

On Wednesday I encourage you to do something to remember and even hashtag it #ISayNeverAgain and send me a picture or a message saying how you contributed!