Personal Reflection II- Ashley Scully

Friday March 15, 2013

I journeyed through the remains of Hell,

Passed a gate that read Arbeit Macht Frei.

This place is called Auschwitz,

A realm separate from the world with a broken ground,

Here lies a rupture in humanity.

All alone in the remains of Hell,

I was not in danger.

All that is left are human ashes, crumbling chambers, and a deafening silence.

Without my rosary I could not pray,

I felt a presence of absence and an absence of presence.

God was absent,

I did not feel God’s presence.

But I heard a voice echo through the birch trees,

“You must finish this journey and witness what was done,

I am not here because it is a sad place for a creator to be dwelling.”

I took a deep breath,

And walked the railroad tracks without God to guide me.

To my right, I see the blocks where they slept.

To my left, I see the remains of the gas chambers where they died.

Up above, the sky was gray.

Even the sun was absent in this place.

On the ground, I see the ashes…. the ashes of my distant relatives of faith.

My soul writhed in pain.

I journeyed through the remains of Hell,

Passed a gate that read Arbeit Macht Frei.

And I lived to tell this tale.