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Day 14- Osweicm
6 years ago
General
Today I visited Auschwitz. Quite honestly, it didn't feel proper not to see that place as long as I was here. A lot of people feel sad or scared when visiting that place. Not I. I can honestly say I never felt that. But instead, I felt a quiet sense of anger at the cruelty of it all.
I first visited Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you have never been to Osweicm, it is a sad irony that a town so beautiful most be forever synonymous with horror and despair. Anyway, Birkenau is very large, I would cautiously estimate at least 8-10 football field-sized. It is estimated that no fewer than 1.3 million met their deaths there, 90% of them Jews. I saw almost everything there was to see. The tracks that lead to nowhere. The gates of hell and destruction. And the ruins of the former gas chamber, which the Nazis attempted to destroy in a cowardly attempt to cover up the traces of their hellishness.
I promise I am not making this up. I swear that I could physically feel the sheer aura of hatred and despair as I walked near the ruins of the gas chamber. As if demons resided there! I dared not stay there for more than 7 minutes, it was that intense.
After that, I saw someplace that was, in my opinion, far worse. I saw the barracks where Mengele, in his evil, tortured more than 1,200 people to death in the name of science, the bulk of whom were children under 5. That struck me as far worse than being gassed. If you were to be gassed to death, at least you had the consolation of knowing that your end would be quick. Mengele and his medical experiments served no purpose, none, other than to slowly destroy you in the most exquisitely cruel way conceivable.
And then there were the children's barracks. In which several hundred Polish children, along with their mothers, were gathered into one, and then murdered by having molten phenol injected into their hearts while they were still alive. This was as punishment for their cooperation with the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion. Incidentally not a single one, not one, of those murdered in this way was even Jewish.
Have I scared you away by now? Take comfort, for it does get easier. I attempted to visit Auschwitz I, after lunch and a long rest. I say attempted because, as it turns out, you need to pay to get in, and they only let in a certain number of people who have not reserved ahead of time. That strikes me as more than a little tasteless! But all the same, I managed to get some good photos. One photo that stood out to me was from a survivor. It said "What I learned from my experience in Auschwitz is to believe in kindness. Be good to the people around you."
I really like that. I would add, saying that death is not the end. Sin and evil do not have the final say. Only God does. However tempting, never give up hope.
Sigh...this is by far the longest entry I have made. It is also the most demanding of energy. I hope you will forgive me until tomorrow. Goodnight.
Edit- I can now say I have stared evil and hatred right in the face and turned my back.
I first visited Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you have never been to Osweicm, it is a sad irony that a town so beautiful most be forever synonymous with horror and despair. Anyway, Birkenau is very large, I would cautiously estimate at least 8-10 football field-sized. It is estimated that no fewer than 1.3 million met their deaths there, 90% of them Jews. I saw almost everything there was to see. The tracks that lead to nowhere. The gates of hell and destruction. And the ruins of the former gas chamber, which the Nazis attempted to destroy in a cowardly attempt to cover up the traces of their hellishness.
I promise I am not making this up. I swear that I could physically feel the sheer aura of hatred and despair as I walked near the ruins of the gas chamber. As if demons resided there! I dared not stay there for more than 7 minutes, it was that intense.
After that, I saw someplace that was, in my opinion, far worse. I saw the barracks where Mengele, in his evil, tortured more than 1,200 people to death in the name of science, the bulk of whom were children under 5. That struck me as far worse than being gassed. If you were to be gassed to death, at least you had the consolation of knowing that your end would be quick. Mengele and his medical experiments served no purpose, none, other than to slowly destroy you in the most exquisitely cruel way conceivable.
And then there were the children's barracks. In which several hundred Polish children, along with their mothers, were gathered into one, and then murdered by having molten phenol injected into their hearts while they were still alive. This was as punishment for their cooperation with the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion. Incidentally not a single one, not one, of those murdered in this way was even Jewish.
Have I scared you away by now? Take comfort, for it does get easier. I attempted to visit Auschwitz I, after lunch and a long rest. I say attempted because, as it turns out, you need to pay to get in, and they only let in a certain number of people who have not reserved ahead of time. That strikes me as more than a little tasteless! But all the same, I managed to get some good photos. One photo that stood out to me was from a survivor. It said "What I learned from my experience in Auschwitz is to believe in kindness. Be good to the people around you."
I really like that. I would add, saying that death is not the end. Sin and evil do not have the final say. Only God does. However tempting, never give up hope.
Sigh...this is by far the longest entry I have made. It is also the most demanding of energy. I hope you will forgive me until tomorrow. Goodnight.
Edit- I can now say I have stared evil and hatred right in the face and turned my back.
