One Small Gesture

This past weekend I traveled to Richmond with members of LC Hillel and the local Synagogue to visit the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  After being escorted by our tour guide from a replica rail car, we were led into a small room with a door that read Brausebad (Shower). We all knew that it wasn’t really a shower and never in a million years did I expect the tour guide to open the door and beckon us to walk inside. I was frozen; every muscle in my body screamed to run in the opposite direction. My brain knew that it was just a museum exhibit, but every other part of me started to vibrate with fear.

Just when I was ready to walk away, one of the elder members of the synagogue grabbed my hand, smiled at me and said, “We will do this together.” At that moment I imagined a mother grabbing the hand of her young daughter– dirty and tired after a very long and hot train ride; humiliated after being stripped of all of their possessions and their clothing; and teased with the promise of relief from a warm shower– assuring her young child that all would be fine. I could see them walking through that Brausebad door never to come out alive.

The woman and I walked into the “shower” where the horror, disgust, and fear of all who came before us still lingered. There were scratches on the walls marking the desperation of those who were trapped inside. The woman and I held (gripped) hands during the tour guide’s talk, but I didn’t hear any of the words. In my head I could only hear a mothers’ cry. It has taken me four days to process that experience and find the words to describe it.

I am grateful to the woman who held my hand through that experience as it reminded me that there is simultaneously both good and evil in the world and that I am fortunate to have, at that moment, attracted the good. And while I did not need to be reminded of the horrors of the Holocaust, I am glad that I had that particular experience as it reminded me that fear can take many forms and that comfort can be as simple as holding someone’s hand.

As we begin to celebrate Passover, a Jewish holiday commemorating the exodus from oppression in Egypt, I will carry this memory with me to help me remember how one small gesture can make an impact on a person’s life.

Shalom,

Andrea Roth
Hillel Coordinator