Bearing Witness and Healing: My Peace Pilgrimage

Written by Kathleen Cogan, M.A.,

Last summer while living in Switzerland I embarked on a Peace Pilgrimage. I was inspired by the work of Dr. Roy Tamashiro, and the concept of collective healing through bearing witness to suffering.

I had not anticipated that earning my masters in counseling lead me here. However, and most fortunately, I was open to the experience changing me. Knowing what I know about trauma and the cycle of violence, I firmly believe that whatever the problem, war is never the answer. This makes me a pacifist, seeking peace.

So when I heard Roy speak on his peace pilgrimage to Jeju and My Lai - I heard a calling of my own. I had to go on my own peace pilgrimage (which in many ways has not ended). I would not have to travel too far: my focus would be bearing witness to the victims of the Holocaust.  I set out not on a fact finding mission of WWII and the Holocaust but to experience and connect with the pain and suffering that had occurred and is still being felt by their descendants.

Part of pilgrimage took me to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, outside of Berlin, Prague and the Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova Synagoga), and ended at Auschwitz Birkenau I & II. For me, the impact of the Jewish genocide began to fully it hit me when I entered the Pinkas Synagogue. One the walls of this synagogue, now memorial, are when the names, handwritten, of every Czech Jew that was sent to the gas chambers. The bodies of those that entered the gas chambers were later burned, so there can be no marked graves. (The Nazis literally did the best they could to erase an entire people.) 

So the lives lost are remembered here.  Their names grouped by hometown. And this is when I broke or rather, broke through to some kind of connection to the names. I remained in the space, unabashed tears running down my face. Everyone has a hometown. They are us. There is a Kathleen on this wall.  (I write this acknowledging the complexity of that statement- my name is not Jewish. I am not Jewish.)

I am a peace seeker because of this connection. I believe it is in this connection we can collectively heal from even the most severe trauma, and thus prevent further violence.  When we try to rip others of their humanity we also stripping ourselves of ours. When we  reduce someone to an undesirable statistic or label we are degrading our own humanity. There is no “other”, only “us.” For me bearing witness to the overwhelming loss, violence and inhumanity of the Holocaust, brought me closer to all humans.

Now as a counselor I bear witness to my clients’ pain and suffering. I sometimes see what others are not able or allowed to see. I witness the ways in which they have sometimes been treated inhumanely or simply with less care than they deserved. It is my hope that, in part,  witnessing their lives and suffering, they are able to regain a wholeness, and reclaim their own humanity.  

You don’t have to have to travel far to be a part of this kind of healing too. Next time a friend, family member, co-worker, or the stranger, complains, expresses a difference of opinion or behaves in a way that baffles try to listen, without judgement and be open to understanding their experience. What I am proposing can be hard work, but despite our collective and individual differences, we are all in it together, connected through our humanity.

 If your life has been impacted by trauma, contact us for a free consultation for trauma therapy.