Guan Yin — The White Tara.

Healing on all Levels.

I was about sixteen years old and I was staying at a High School in Texas. Foreign Student Exchange. My subject was U.S. History, which was a required course for which I had been registered. And the topic of this class fit me just perfect, as the German exchange student: “Second World War, Holocaust.” Today before the lesson the teacher told me that I could skip class if I wanted to. Because they were going to watch a movie about the concentration camp in Auschwitz. I smiled at him. Why would I not want to take part, I asked myself? After all, I had already witnessed the crimes of my ancestors in our own history classes. What followed was a long film that showed the Nazi crimes against the Jews in all its vastness. A wide variety of reactions happened in the class. Some began to sob or cry aloud. Others began turning around to me and giving me accusatory, even angry looks. And still others bowed barely noticeable. I was the German. And as I realized, to my classmates, I was part of a Germany of which I had never been part.

When the teacher stopped the film at its most dramatic point without warning he theatrically demanded. “Enough of this. Julia, how do you feel about it? Would you like to apologize?” I smiled and shook my head, a response that was followed by me being bombarded with more stares, pieces of paper, and — as I assumed —…