Witness Trees

In the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in northwestern Germany, 50,000 people perished under Nazi terrorism. The first photos of the Nazi regime’s devastation in the concentration camps were not made public until the British liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 19, 1945. As I walked solemnly through the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, I felt that there were witnesses to the horrible atrocities. And the witnesses, the trees, were still standing. Look closely—you will find your eyes. Dig deeper and you will find the skeletons. Ironically, in the USA the birch tree has been designated as the National Memorial Tree for Mothers.