A powerful experience...

Today Stephen had to work a double, and his mother was very generous and came to watch Anna so that my mom and I could go out to eat and catch a traveling exhibition that is currently in town. She saw an article or advertisement in the paper about the show, and asked if I would want to go. I was all for it. We went to eat at Hester's, a little sandwich shop on the backside of a cute antique shop near six points. It was nice, I got a southwestern Cesar salad, that was YUMDIDY with guacamole and sun-dried tomatoes. I ran into an old friend, Jill Baugher, and her mother, out for a daughters and mothers family day filled with good food, pedicures and manicures. We had a very nice lunch, and just enjoyed the time for a while.

Then we went to the photo gallery on People's street to see the exhibition. It is a smaller gallery, but very nice. The show they are currently hosting for the next two months is called "Eyes from the Ashes" a collection of photographs from Ann Weiss. Ann Weiss is not the photographer of the collection, however, the author of a book in which she shares these photographs that she mistakenly found while taking a tour at the Auschwitz-Birkeneau concentration camps in 1986. The photographs were not supposed to be seen. These 2400 photos were images brought to the camps by the prisoners in hopes of holding onto an image of a loved one or a time when things were better. Personal items such as photographs were confiscated by the Nazi soldiers at every camp and shipped to a crematorium at another location to be destroyed. Apparently it was important to Hitler to not only destroy the people themselves, but their spirit and memories along with every bit of evidence that claimed they ever existed. Somehow, the photos confiscated at Auschwitz-Birkeneau were saved and lie in a room for 40 years until Ann Weiss found them with the help of a museum worker and his golden key.
My mother and I had the pleasure of speaking with Ann Weiss this afternoon and heard stories that would bring tears to your eyes. At one point, I did get emotional. Her sacrifice to travel and share these photographs, 2400 that remain out of millions that once existed, to cities across the US, Europe and even to Israel has healed many wounds, and had many people reunited with pictures of loved ones that they thought they would never see again. It truly is an amazing and powerful experience. She has a website and I encourage you to check it out. She also has a book that has most of the images in it with stories of these people and who they were before the evil that came and took it all away. I sat and read about it this evening and am all the more moved.

Ann is a wonderful lady with a huge heart for her people. We ended up spending a good two hours with her and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. It is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. The show was completely free to the public and she is supported solely by donations. If you are in the place to donate, I feel compelled to ask you to think about doing just that. It is history. I read today at the show that Hitler knew that to destroy a people group it was important to take out two groups first, the old and the young. The old to kill the wisdom, the past. The young to destroy any hope of a future. In reading that I wanted desperately to help this woman give the joy of memories to anyone who was still living. To help one person see a loved one that they thought would only be seen in their dreams. One man wrote after finding a photo of his first wife and child who had perished at Auschwitz, " I could show my family, THAT is who I was, THAT is where I came from! It was my revenge on Hitler!" I hope you all have a wonderful week and hope you find time to visit this website and see the beautiful pictures of a beautiful people who were snuffed out by such a terrible force.