I wrote this in my personal journal just after we left Breendonk:
“Just left Breendonk feeling feeling really heavy. Knowing all those people were beaten, tortured and killed -all for being non-Arien. I don’t understand; why didn’t anybody stand up for them? Our tour guide said “History tends to repeat itself because ‘humans’ don’t learn from their mistakes” (he said HUMANS) Which is true. I have no words right now. It’s pure emotion flowing through me. I can still see the wall that hold the fortress together. The concrete wall and how chunks were (I assume) blown out. The erosion of constant rain fall. The smell from inside the fortress was indescribable. It felt as though the walls were, at one point in time, being suffocated by the fear of the prisoners and could finally breathe. Not so heavy though, for fear of being caught by the ghost of the SS that once roamed the brick corridors. When I walked through that first gate that lead into the fortress, I can remember thinking about the prisoners that walked through that same gate 70+ years ago and didn’t come back out. I don’t know how exactly, but some day, some how I’m going to pay homage to those that perished during the Holocaust.”
