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Nov 3, 2010
3 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2010: Day #3

Wow, what an evening. I’m guess I’m going to write about today starting in reverse, because that’s what’s most alive for me right now. We just finished a two-hour spiral council with the entire group, about 90 participants, including the youth component. Council circles, also known as talking stick circles, listening circles, peace circles, etc., are a core part of this retreat. A “spiral” council is a format where you have an inner circle of chairs, in this case seven, surro

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Nov 2, 2010
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2010: Day #2

We began our morning as usual with the small council circles, where the listening and sharing goes very deep. After breakfast we walked or rode the bus to Birkenau, about 25 minutes on foot. I went ahead with the truck carrying our sitting cushions and benches for our sitting circle at the “selection site” between the tracks at Birkenau. As we rounded the bend and Birkenau came into view, my whole body shuddered with fear and dread. Birkenau seems to always do me in the first

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Nov 1, 2010
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2010: Day #1

We arrived in Oswiecim, Poland by bus from Krakow this morning and settled into our quarters at the Centrum Dialogu (Dialog Center) a short walk from Auschwitz I. After our orientation and lunch we spent the afternoon at Auschwitz I, the original concentration/death camp established here by the Nazis in 1939. This is my 10th Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz, my second this year. I never know how I will react or what my journey will be here, but what arose in me as I wande

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Jun 14, 2010
4 min

Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat June 2010

Today we completed the fourth day of the Zen Peacemaker bearing witness retreat here at Auschwitz & Birkenau. This is my eighth retreat here, and I’ll be back in November to help guide another bearing witness retreat for Palistininian and Jewish youth from Israel as well as youth from other countries. In past years I have written and shared daily reports, more recently in the form of blogs, each day of the retreat. This year I have not been inspired to do so up until now. Per

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Nov 6, 2008
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2008: Day #3

This year we are primarily focused on re-visioning the Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness retreat; so after two days of following our tradition retreat from at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau), we began our re-visioning process on Wednesday. After our early morning small council groups and breakfast, our group of thirty, past retreat staff and invited guests from Israel, Palestine and Rwanda, gathered in a large meeting room at the Center for Dialog and Prayer. I lead

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Nov 5, 2008
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2008: Day #2

Tuesday, November 4th. We held our first small group councils this morning before breakfast, 7 – 8:30 am. We have four small groups each faciltated by two experience Auschwitz retreat staff and council facilitators and each with 7 or 8 participants including the facilitators. The groups varies but all reported deep sharing from our experiences at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau) yesterday. After breakfast we returned to Birkenau of a day of our traditional bearing witn

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Nov 4, 2008
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2008: Day #1

Yesterday was our first full day at the camps. We spent the morning at Auschwitz I after beginning our plunge into Not Knowing as we do each year watching two films in the Auschwitz museum theater, two film depicting horrors beyond imagination. We spent the afternoon at Birkenau, the immense death factory also known as Auschwitz II. This is a unique year for the retreat. It is a closed retreat this year for former bearing witness retreat staff and a few invited guests, 30 of

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Nov 9, 2007
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2007: Days #4 & 5

I am sitting down to write this late on the night of November 9th, after two very long full days here in Oswiecim, Poland. Thursday was our last day at Birkenau. We began as usual with our meditation period and then the reading of the names at the Selection Site, the train platform in Birkenau. I missed the religious services taking care of retreat business and returned to Birkenau just in time to begin the interfaith pilgrimage through Birkenau. This Pilgrimage was fist deve

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Nov 8, 2007
4 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2007: Day #3

As we boarded the bus this morning at the Dialog Center for the short ride to Birkenau, it looked like we were in for more of the same, sub-freezing temperatures and freezing rain. As the bus made the final turn and the eerie and in some ways bizarrely beautiful landscape of Birkenau came into view, I felt the familiar heaviness descend on my spirit, a kind of sobering seriousness that says, Pay Attention , or as the line in our Zen Peacemakers Gate of Sweet Nectar liturgy sa

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Nov 7, 2007
2 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2007: Day #2

Day Two: Birkenau As always, we began our morning with the small group councils at 7 am. I am facilitating Group 2. There are only six of us right now, five women and myself, because the three other men assigned to our group did not arrive. So I’m doing my best not to get in the way of the wonderful feminine energy and wisdom in the group. The sharing this morning was deep, both painful and nourishing to the spirit. We all arrived together at Birkenau around 10 am and followe

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Nov 6, 2007
3 min

Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat 2007: Day #1

Forty of us, from 11 different countries began the Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat this morning, leaving Krakow early by bus and arriving mid-morning at the Auschwitz I museum. We are a diverse group along many dimensions, including age, our youngest participant 17 and the oldest among us, 82. Our retreat begins with watching two documentary films at the Auschwitz I museum theatre, one documenting the liberation of Auschwitz by the Russian troops and the other the

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