When I first came on this trip, I did so not because of my religion or ethnicity, but becuse of my status as a member of mankind. Yet after a 48-hour layover, large quantities of airline food-like substances, and the general monotony of life in an airport followed by the sudden transition to the intense experience of seeing one of the last standing portions of the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto, my perception of what a “nmember of mankind” truly is. For the previous 48 hours, the entire extent of mankind I have been in contact with has consisted of our group of some twenty students and assorted faculty. Until late yesterday, I did not realize how small we really are, and even now the shock of having to think of our species in terms of millions of people rather than the thirty-odd Americans who have made up my life for the past two days has not fully registered.
In the context of what our group is witnessing, we are remote beyond measure. I am sure, however, that I would have been unable to process the information I have recieved as well in any other way. Seeing the fate of some 11 million people through the lens of my small group of compatriots has the effect of drawing us closer together, just as the intense suffering here drew people closer together seventy years earlier. The way those persecuted survived the experience physically will be the way we survive it emotionally– as a group we are able to process far more than on our own.
What, then, is the “mankind” that I came here to be a part of? I feel that it is not our small group or the 11 million that came before us. It is the connections we have between each other.