70 years may seem like a long time, but from a historical perspective it is but "yesterday." Recently I have been re-processing an atrocity that occurred only 70 years ago -- the Warsaw Ghetto. Although I have studied it often, these last few weeks have created an even deeper sorrow in my soul. I read Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, by Emmanuel Ringelblum, Ghetto Diary, by Janusz Korczak, and watched the film "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler." The day-to-day accounts of life in the ghetto by both Ringelblum and Korczak were difficult to read. I felt a great sadness in my spirit and a heaviness that filled my heart. It is hard to imagine that this really happened in the Warsaw I know and love -- and not only in Warsaw, but in Łódź, Białystok, Kraków, Lublin, and many other towns. 70 years ago this summer (July - September 1942) the unimagineable occurred as 300,000 Jewish men, women, and children were deported from the ghetto, most of them murdered immediately upon arrival at Treblinka. Unbelievable.
I study the history of Poland because I love this nation and her people. I want to understand the Polish people in order to love and serve them effectively. But the history of the people of Poland is intrinsically bound with the history of the Jewish people who lived among them as Poles. Yes, it is a complex history - but I am determined to learn as much as possible from as many perspectives as possible. My friends have sometimes warned me that too much study of the suffering in the past will cloud my spirit and be harmful. Yet I believe that I cannot minister well unless I carry in me at least in some small measure the same sorrow that those I'm ministering to carry in great measure.
The Warsaw Ghetto is one of many horrific ordeals that have occurred on Polish soil. Jews and non-Jews alike have endured indescribable suffering. I do not know the specific implications for today, but I pray that God will somehow redeem these events to His glory. I want to honestly face and remember the past, asking God to bring good from evil, beauty from ashes, joy from despair. May the God of Israel and His Son, Jesus the Messiah, be LORD over Poland's past, present, and future. O God, may Poland fulfill the destiny to which You have called her!
