The Greatest Things in Life Cannot Be Defined

     What are the greatest things in the world we live in? Wealth? Fame? Power? Are those the means to a happy life? 

     Let's go back in time. To the day everything began. To the day when we were born. What was the first thing we felt? It sure wasn't the amount of money in the family's bank account. Nor was it the number of likes the announcement of our birth got on Facebook. And we certainly didn't feel like ruling the world. 

     Need a hint? You weren't the only person crying in the birthing room. There were tears of joy on your mother's cheeks, too. She held you in her arms and whispered to you how much she loved you.

     Yes, that's right. Love. The strongest and unlimited force that everyone fails to understand and explain. Trying to form a definition of this beautiful genuine feeling only decreases its value. Deep inside, we know what it is. It's just impossible to put it into words. It drives us crazy. It makes us feel safe. It makes us do things we never thought we'd do. The person we love means everything to us. A simple smile, a hug or a kiss can make our day so much better. Can make us happy. 

     What is happiness? No, it's not a state of mind caused by some of our hormones. It's not a state at all. It's something we're born with. Something we hold inside without realizing it. We see light inside us and mistake it for emptiness. We are in search of happiness our entire lives. And sometimes only at the very end do we realize, that it's been with us the whole time. That we can be happy only if we find the light within ourselves. Only, if we allow ourselves to be. We can never even begin to explain the utter feeling of euphoria when we feel it. It's just as indescribable as our fear of losing it. 

     Why does humankind try to define everything? Why does humankind have to entitle everything and name its proper function? When, deep inside, we actually seek the unexplainable? Those things draw us the most. We admire how they are greater than what our understanding is possibly capable of capturing. And yet, as always, people feel this urge to own everything and so they imprison these vast feelings in words.

     But they remain growing. Beyond our definitions. Beyond our minds. Beyond us. Because, as some of us already know, the greatest things in life cannot be defined. 

Nikola Müllerová (IV.B)

That moment when we should recognise what life was about...

     Every school year, students of the third grade are offered to go on an unforgettable excursion to visit our neighbouring country Poland and to have an inside look at one of the most visited places there: Oswiecim. This year was no exception again. On Wednesday, students could find out and come to understand how the whole process of killing and humiliation of mainly Jews, Gypsies and other nationalities during World War II had been going on in one of the biggest death camps in Poland - Auschwitz. 

     We started our way to the Auschwitz memorial and museum early in the morning. However, we had another stop in a small city called Wadowice, which has international recognition as the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. Usually, tourists seek in Wadowice sites connected with Pope John II as Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the native home of the Pope which is located there as well. Then we had some time to spend walking, eating or discovering things around.

     The main part of the excursion came after lunch when we had to move by bus to the museum in Oswiecim. After a few minutes we reached our destination and saw part of the museum for the first time. We were given headsets to be able to hear our guide clearly and we started our sightseeing tour.

     A book (entitled: Auschwitz Birkenau: Memorial and Museum) that can be purchased at Auschwitz states: “The world has come to know Auschwitz as a symbol of state terrorism, genocide and the Holocaust. The camp was opened in 1940 and expanded over the following years until it comprised three main parts and as well as more than 40 sub-camps. Initially, Poles were imprisoned in the camp and died there. Beginning in 1942, the camp became the scene of the largest mass murder in human history, committed against the Jews of Europe as part of the Nazi plans for the total extermination of that people. The majority of the Jews deported to Auschwitz (men, women, children), were sent directly after arrival to their deaths in the Birkenau gas chambers.” And it goes on to say: “It is estimated that at least 1,100,000 Jews were sent to the camp from Nazi-occupied Europe. Red army soldiers liberated those who remained in the camp in 1945.”

     During the visit many of us listened carefully to what the guide was telling us as the information provided to us was unbelievable and interesting at the same time and also in accordance with what we had learnt before about the things that had been done to those that had temporarily inhabited this place. The manner of living and working in this place was extremely severe. After visiting the rooms which contained things such as human shoes, hair or glasses, every one of us had to spend some time thinking about that, that those things once belonged to human beings who were violently killed there. Walking through the room of photos of prisoners, seeing their condition of living or visiting a crematorium and gas chambers, made it difficult for us to understand how it was possible to survive. So it is quite incredible that a few of them did survive and live until now.

     The first part consisted mainly of walking across the blocks of the camp and after 2 hours we moved to the second bigger area called Birkenau which is three kilometres from Oswiecim. There thousands of Jews were murdered with poison gas and then cremated. We also visited some of the wooden barracks where hundreds of prisoners were assembled.

     On the way home, most of us were thinking about the visit and we have been thinking it up until now. Something had to happen at that time as there wasn't any solid reason for doing this. Humans were doing it to other human beings, to the same living creatures as they were. More and more questions are daily answered but can we finally say it is over?

Alexandra Mašlejová (III.D)