Growing Under Barbed Wire
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

April 18, 2016, Apeldoorn

Liberation day at Auschwitz, behind barbed wires....

I saw an image...barbed wire and a plant growing underneath.

Barbed wire, twisted, sharp, ominous, a sign of fear, evil.

Barbed wire, designed to keep dangerous intruders out, or dangerous criminals in, or...

to keep innocent people in.

Barbed wire, the image of the Holocaust, the image of Auschwitz. The barbed wire indicates how far the prisoners could go. Beyond that was certain death; watch towers, German Sheppard's, armed guards ready and eager to shoot.

Barbed wire, a sign of the evil in the hearts of men, and of women.

But underneath the barbed wire I saw a plant growing, green and happy, it could not be stopped. We cover nature with concrete but sooner or later grass and flowers will start popping though the concrete. Life cannot be stopped.

Barbed wire is the creation of men, an expression of the evil of man, but plants, flowers, grass are the creation of God, a sign of life, love, renewal and a sign to us that life can never be stopped. Even in Auschwitz life will return.

When my family were in Auschwitz there was no grass, it tried to grow but it was stomped out by the Evil ones. When Tens of thousands of people trample upon the ground every day there is no chance for the grass to come back, but .... nature is patient. Nature can wait. Evil men come and go but, in the end, shall be defeated, and when they do, life shall always return. The grass is always pushing up, the green is waiting to return. After every Winter a Spring shall surely come.

In time the barbed wire will grow rusty but a plant, a flower, will never become rusty. It will flower and then pass on to make room for the next generation, it will replant itself, leave a seed, it never truly dies.

The rusty barbed wire stands as a testimony to the evil designs of man but the blossoming flower beneath it is a sign of the victory of life, it is the spirit of 'never give up', the flower will always win.

We stand on the side of the flower, on the side of life.

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.