THE FACE I SEE EVERYWHERE
Why Barbara Wegmüller Returns to Auschwitz
There is the face of a woman, looking at me, ever since I met her eyes for the first time. She is looking at me in one of the pictures in a memorial hall in Auschwitz I, the original camp. The photo shows her as she is waiting with her children and a group of women at the selection site. Her face shows disgust, fear, distress, and she seems to know what will happen to her and her children as she looks into the camera.
Her face appears so clearly in my heartmind. I see her face when I am listening to the stories of a woman living in Kongo today, giving a interview to a western journalist. Also in the family arriving as refugees, exhausted, on the shores of Italy, coming from Eritrea. I see it in the activist couple who escaped from a prison in Turkey. From the mother whose whole family was killed, now speaking out at the tribunal in Den Haag, telling what happened to them during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I see her face as well in the women remembered at the Ravensbrück museum, and in the faces of my friends who still treasure the key to their house in Palestine that they had to leave so long ago.
Bearing Witness at Auschwitz has made me much more aware, personal and political. I feel the energy of this woman as my own, when I stand for human rights, writing letters to bring refugees to a safer place, open my door to people who escaped from dangerous places, and when I beg for relief projects for people in need.
I also follow the call to just listen, to listen to the voices of all the courageous people who join in a group with the wish to drop deeply into the essence, what it means to be a human among humans, looking at what we are as individuals and as a collective.
The retreat also gives me the gift of listening to the voices of the earth, of the sky and the wind. This deep listening reminds me of my duty, to take my place humbly in the circle of life and be present and open for what is, moment by moment.

Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bearing Witness Retreat
Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy place to approach,
especially when you are being called,
to make whole.
November 15 - 21, 2026
Oświęcim, Poland
WAY OF COUNCIL
Council is one of our most important core Zen Peacemaker practices. We share Council during our Bearing Witness retreats almost every day. In Council, we come together in a small group in a profound way. We create a shared liminal space that is safe, confidential, and perhaps sacred. We each listen and speak from the heart, encountering and experiencing one another gently and with awareness. We are not solving problems, debating issues, or making plans. We are making a healing space for each of us to hear and be heard, see and be seen.
UPCOMING COUNCILS (click on title to learn more & register)
Friday, June 19th - Women Only Council
Monday, June 22nd - Mental Health Professionals & Caregivers - Council
Tuesday, June 30th - Way of Council
A PRAYER FOR PEACE
Our dear Lakota relative, Violet Catches, would like to invite Zen Peacemakers from all around the world to join on the Fourth Friday of the month at 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, to offer prayers for peace.
Participants will be encouraged to offer prayers from their faith tradition, culture, and in their language.
FRIENDS OF ZEN PEACEMAKERS
The Sacredness of Life , An Online Course Inspired by Etty Hillesum
Thursdays, June 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2026 · 19:30–21:30 Palestine/Israel Time
This course asks one of the most radical questions of our time: how do we hold the sacredness of life when life itself is under threat?
Etty Hillesum was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943, at the age of 29. She witnessed deportations, humiliation, and the systematic destruction of her people — and yet she refused to let horror have the final word. Not out of denial, but out of a profound and hard-won devotion to life in its fullest sense. She teaches us that to affirm the sacredness of life in the darkest of times is not weakness — it is an act of the deepest courage and the deepest faith.
TAKING ACTION
Spiritual traditions are many, yet the divisions we experience are not only between them, they are also within us, in the ways we hold views and define what is “true” or “other.” Through the Three Tenets, we begin here. Not-Knowing invites us to loosen our attachment to fixed ideas about religion and belief. Bearing Witness brings us into direct relationship with the practices, rituals, and lived experiences of others. Taking Action arises within this encounter, not from agreement, but from staying present in difference.As we engage across traditions, in dialogue, shared practice, or collaboration, we begin to notice our own assumptions, our preferences, our subtle habits of separation. In that moment, there is an opportunity to remain present and meet one another more openly.This may look like participating in interfaith initiatives, building relationships across traditions, or working together to address shared needs. The work is not about resolving difference, but about how we meet it.
Learn more here: https://zenpeacemakers.org/taking-action-home/taking-action-interfaith
✨ Explore the Taking Action initiative — discover how you can serve, connect, and be inspired by the work already unfolding in your communities.
👉 Explore More
❤️ Your gift helps bring the Three Tenets to life.
👉 Donate Here
ZAZEN
Experience a connection with your personal landscape through the transformative power of online meditation sessions with the Zen Peacemakers. Whether you're part of a local sangha or other spiritual community, we invite you to join us in this virtual space where we can gather across geographies and time zones.
Join us for these online meditation sessions and experience the profound benefits of collective mindfulness. The Zen Peacemakers are here to support you on this transformative journey.
Monday - Friday
10:00 - 10:40 am US Eastern
MORE INFO HERE
OFFERING
The Bernie Koans
Edited by: Ken Byalin, Francisco "Paco" Lugovina, Christopher Panos
‘It’s just my opinion, man’, as Bernie would say. We all have our opinions about Roshi Bernie Glassman. To some of us, he is the stern head monk at Zen Center of LA; to others, he is the socially engaged Buddhist who built up the Greyston Bakery and Foundation. To others he is the founder of Zen Peacemakers International and the instigator of bearing witness plunges on the city streets and at Auschwitz and to others he is the clown, the founder of the Order of Disorder. He is all of these and more. As the stories in the book show, he is Bernie, the mensch, who spent his life feeding the hungry ghosts of society and teaching that Zen is to realize the oneness and interconnectedness of life.
-Gerry Shishin Wick, grateful Dharma brother and disciple of Roshi Bernie
Thank you for reading this week's Zen Peacemakers newsletter.
We look forward to connecting at upcoming events, on social media, and via email.
With gratitude,
The Zen Peacemakers Team








