Dear friends,
We invite you to join us in Oświęcim, Poland, for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat, a profoundly moving gathering rooted in the Zen Peacemakers’ Three Tenets: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action.
For over twenty-five years, people from many cultures, faiths, and paths have returned to this place — a site of unspeakable suffering — to bear witness together. As shared on our programs page:
“Bearing witness is to be fully present for whatever arises, letting go of fixed ideas and holding space for transformation to occur.”
This retreat is not a history lesson, a tour, or a meditation retreat. It is a deeply participatory practice of being present — with each other, with the land, and with the echoes of the past that still reverberate.
Each day we:
Sit in silence and chant the names of the dead by the train tracks of Birkenau.
Walk the grounds of Auschwitz and Birkenau, holding vigils and offering prayers.
Gather in small Council groups to share what arises and listen deeply.
Create space for grief, resilience, connection, and healing.
Come together across religious, national, and generational lines to witness the wounds of history, in hopes of creating a more compassionate present.
We do not come to fix or explain, but to feel, to honor, and to stand together — in love and in truth — in the face of what was, and still is.
If you feel called, we welcome you.
In Gratitude,
Jim Hōden Fricker
Zen Peacemakers
Our mission is to realize our oneness and relieve suffering through contemplative social action.
www.zenpeacemakers.org








