This trip is going so fast, I can't believe we only have a week and a half left, but I've seen so much it feels like I've been here forever! Right now we're in Erfurt, the place where Martin Luther lived as a monk. Yesterday, we visited the kloster where Martin Luther was actually a monk We attended a short prayer service at a kloster where The Community Casteller Ring is a religious community of women in the Lutheran Church, living according to the rule of St. Benedict (think Lutheran nuns). At the prayer service, done in German, they read scripture, and when they have American visitors, they usually ask for a volunteer to read the scripture in Engilsh. I ended up getting the privilege of doing so, and it was a wonderful experience to read Scripture in the place where Martin Luther lived as a monk. Another cool thing about the Kloster was that part of the Luther movie with Joseph Finnes as Luther was filmed at this Kloster and is the only part of the movie where the original place in Germany was filmed as the set. We also went on a tour of Erfurt and saw many cool sites, including an impressive Catholic Cathedral.
Part of this trip is to focus on not only sites relevant to Luther, but historical sites important to Germany. Today we visited Buchenwald concentration camp, and it was a very powerful experience, to say the least. There was a road that we walked on called Karakho where the newcomers were ordered to run down the path and the guards would let bloodhounds rip them to shreds. This was very entertaining for the guards, and made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Next we walked into the camp through the main gate, and on the door of the gate, the prisoners could read a German phrase that was translated as To Each Their Own, which was a very sarcastic phrase, and had the implied meaning of You Get What You Deserve.
I cannot imagine how the innocent prisoners felt reading this phrase from the inside, wondering what on earth it was that they could have done to deserve such horrible treatment. We also saw a small zoo (no animals now) that was kept as entertainment for the guards, and on the other side of the barbed wire fence, the prisoners could see the guards feeding the animals while they starved to death. After seeing this we went and saw a plaque in the ground that had all the nationalties of people that were impriosned at Buchenwald. Our tour guide told us to bend down and touch the faceplate, and as we did, we could feel warmth exuding from it. The tempterature of this memorial is kept at a constant 98.6 degrees to help us all remember that underneath our skin, hair color, eye color, nationality, sexual identity, religion, and any other identifier, we are all the same human creation, made by God. This was a powerful statement, and one that I wish everyone would realize. It baffles me to think how such an easy concept is so difficult for some people to comprehend and how some people can be the cause of so much pain to others. I will never understand it. On the tour of Buchenwald, we saw where the baracks had been located, and we went through the crematorium and saw the ovens where they burned the dead bodies. 
We also went down into the cellar where there were hooks hung up all along the wall where hangings took place. Then we went through a building that was a reconstruction of the horsestables that the guards took prisoners too in a very misleading trick. They would tell the prisoners they were going to get a medical examination, and when they stood up against the wall to get their height measured, someone was standing on the other side of the wall, and opened up a little hole and shot the prisoner in the back of the head. We often think of the immense power the Nazis had over all these people, but when I hear stuff like this, it makes me realize how incredibly cowardly they could be.
After reflecting on my experience at Buchenwald, I went back to the saying on the gate, 'To Each Their Own.' Back then, it was meant to be a Christian statement, signifying that all those people were imprisoned because of something that they did wrong whÃch certainly was not the case. When I think of the meaning that this statement must of held for them, I am saddened that they died thinking they were in the wrong. However, for me, this statement is missing two words at the end. Instead of 'To Each Their Own,' I would change it to mean 'To Each Their Own Eternal Life,' because in the end, as God's children, we are all entitled to eternal life through the saving grace of Christ, who died for ALL.
Tomorrow, we're on to Wartburg!! No, we don't come home tomorrow, we will be visiting our sister city, Eisenach, home of the Wartburg Castle. Until next time..
Grace and Peace
Part of this trip is to focus on not only sites relevant to Luther, but historical sites important to Germany. Today we visited Buchenwald concentration camp, and it was a very powerful experience, to say the least. There was a road that we walked on called Karakho where the newcomers were ordered to run down the path and the guards would let bloodhounds rip them to shreds. This was very entertaining for the guards, and made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Next we walked into the camp through the main gate, and on the door of the gate, the prisoners could read a German phrase that was translated as To Each Their Own, which was a very sarcastic phrase, and had the implied meaning of You Get What You Deserve.
I cannot imagine how the innocent prisoners felt reading this phrase from the inside, wondering what on earth it was that they could have done to deserve such horrible treatment. We also saw a small zoo (no animals now) that was kept as entertainment for the guards, and on the other side of the barbed wire fence, the prisoners could see the guards feeding the animals while they starved to death. After seeing this we went and saw a plaque in the ground that had all the nationalties of people that were impriosned at Buchenwald. Our tour guide told us to bend down and touch the faceplate, and as we did, we could feel warmth exuding from it. The tempterature of this memorial is kept at a constant 98.6 degrees to help us all remember that underneath our skin, hair color, eye color, nationality, sexual identity, religion, and any other identifier, we are all the same human creation, made by God. This was a powerful statement, and one that I wish everyone would realize. It baffles me to think how such an easy concept is so difficult for some people to comprehend and how some people can be the cause of so much pain to others. I will never understand it. On the tour of Buchenwald, we saw where the baracks had been located, and we went through the crematorium and saw the ovens where they burned the dead bodies. 
We also went down into the cellar where there were hooks hung up all along the wall where hangings took place. Then we went through a building that was a reconstruction of the horsestables that the guards took prisoners too in a very misleading trick. They would tell the prisoners they were going to get a medical examination, and when they stood up against the wall to get their height measured, someone was standing on the other side of the wall, and opened up a little hole and shot the prisoner in the back of the head. We often think of the immense power the Nazis had over all these people, but when I hear stuff like this, it makes me realize how incredibly cowardly they could be.After reflecting on my experience at Buchenwald, I went back to the saying on the gate, 'To Each Their Own.' Back then, it was meant to be a Christian statement, signifying that all those people were imprisoned because of something that they did wrong whÃch certainly was not the case. When I think of the meaning that this statement must of held for them, I am saddened that they died thinking they were in the wrong. However, for me, this statement is missing two words at the end. Instead of 'To Each Their Own,' I would change it to mean 'To Each Their Own Eternal Life,' because in the end, as God's children, we are all entitled to eternal life through the saving grace of Christ, who died for ALL.
Tomorrow, we're on to Wartburg!! No, we don't come home tomorrow, we will be visiting our sister city, Eisenach, home of the Wartburg Castle. Until next time..
Grace and Peace
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