Sometimes the experiences of others blows our minds, and sometimes it helps us better understand what others have endured. The initial response can overload people, like the first view of a concentration camp in Germany by US soldiers in early 1945. While stationed in Germany during the 1980's, I visited Dachau, which remains a "museum" to this day 10 miles northwest of Munich. I wanted to better understand what others have experienced.....not to check the box on a list of things I've done, but to better understand. I strongly recommend avoiding offhand comments to this post without previous thought or preparation.
Two years ago I saw a patient who had recently immigrated from Rwanda. As a physical therapist, physical contact is a standard of treatment, so I studied it to avoid any negative psychological (protective) response by the patient. Here's what I read.....In just 100 days in 1994, some 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda.
Recently I have been reading Buchenwald: Hell on a Hilltop, by Flint Whitlock. The introduction recommends not reading if anyone is too sensitive. An example (stop now if needed) described in the book, is the killing of a prisoner by crushing his head with a vise. Much can be learned, and here
"This, then, is the story of Buchenwald. It is not a pretty story, and readers with sensitive dispositions are advised to journey into the following pages with caution. But it is a necessary story so that the world will better understand what happens when power is left unchecked and how, as 18th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”
Two years ago I saw a patient who had recently immigrated from Rwanda. As a physical therapist, physical contact is a standard of treatment, so I studied it to avoid any negative psychological (protective) response by the patient. Here's what I read.....In just 100 days in 1994, some 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda.
Recently I have been reading Buchenwald: Hell on a Hilltop, by Flint Whitlock. The introduction recommends not reading if anyone is too sensitive. An example (stop now if needed) described in the book, is the killing of a prisoner by crushing his head with a vise. Much can be learned, and here
"This, then, is the story of Buchenwald. It is not a pretty story, and readers with sensitive dispositions are advised to journey into the following pages with caution. But it is a necessary story so that the world will better understand what happens when power is left unchecked and how, as 18th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”