What kind of connection can we truly forge with the past? A couple of years ago I traveled with my grandfather to Vienna, Austria; the place of his birth and of his youth. As we toured the city more and more of his story unfolded and I found myself trying to picture what things were like when he was young. It was amazing to me how the apartment building he grew up in was still there. Walking around in it almost felt like a time portal, as he told the stories I saw them happening. In a weird way I guess this really demonstrated to me the concept of sacred place that we learned about in class. He could have told me the stories anywhere and I could have tried to put them into place but as he told me them in the space in which they actually took place I began to feel like I was a part of them. This was more than just the visual association I was able to make with the place but the strange feelings that my presence there began to give me. My grandfather was forced to leave his home during the holocaust. Yet by going back to it with him it felt as if nothing had ever changed and that he was exactly where he left off, and I was right there with him.
Aaron Stein
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