Sean’s Letter

Dear Warren,

I am very sorry to be writing this letter so long after the date that I promised, but I’m sure you can understand that I have a lot of things to take care of in the last couple weeks. My absence from Eugene left a lot of things to grow different; and I am still being amazed at how much I have changed myself.

Being chosen to be a part of such a discriminatingly selected group was (is) very great honor for me, and since you and I don’t get to spend time together very often, the trip was a very meaningful way to get to know each other better as friends.

This trip taught me so many things that I am beginning to scare myself with the prospect of having to write them all out! I learned as much about humanity. indifference, politics, and forgiveness as I did about historical facts. What they say about being an ambassador for your country when you travel is very true. The world does not seem as big and separated as it did before our trip. I realized that every bit of good that one does will definitely be returned in one way or another. People like Bernd and Friedrich who put so much energy into welcoming us to their country showed me how important it is to be an open host. They wanted to educate all of us in German history and culture, which was a very important goal of our trip.

The heaviest and most eye-opening event that I witnessed was definitely walking through Buchenwald with all of the media, vets, army, and younger generation. I have great respect for the strength it must have taken for all of you vets to return to the camp even for the purpose of education. I stayed in Buchenwald for maybe a total of 2-3 hours, and I do not ever want to go back. The magnitude of lives which were claimed inside that fence is almost too much to grasp.

I do thank you for taking me there; it was an experience that I will never forget.

On my first trip toBuchenwald, I put a small piece of brick I my pocket. I figured that the stone would remind me of the terror and hatred and indifference on our second trip back. I left the stone there. I do not need, or want a rock to remember Buchenwald. The memory will never leave me, and the rock would only haunt me.

I had an interesting concept surface in my head when I was in the cab in New York City.

I looked up at the buildings on both sides of me, and felt a sense of confinement. That was interesting because it felt similar to the confinement simulated by the Holocaust monument at the “Little Camp”. I took this thought as an omen to remember to spend time outside of the city where my movement is not too much restricted by cement.

Since I returned, I have been following the conflicts in the Middle East more closely than I ever have before. Maybe because we went to a concentration camp together, I feel more involved, (being a relative of yours) in what is going on in the Middle East. The land dispute does have a lot of meaning for me. I don’t want to join the army, but I feel responsible to spread as much truth as I know to as many people as will hear it.

Thank you so much, Warren. This trip was priceless, and came at a very important time in my life to see new things!!!

Love, Sean

P.S. Have you heard any news about the RotKreuz girls in Erfuhrt (shooting)?