You enter the compound by passing under the sign that reads - “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work (will) make (you) free.” Inside the gates are the majestic brick buildings that once housed the pride of the Polish army. Today it houses the remains of the Nazi’s attempt at the “total solution”. Here in Auschwitz four gas chambers, disguised as bathhouses and with crematoria attached, had a combined capacity to kill over 12,000 people a day to exterminate Jews and other political and social minorities.
Our tour guide takes us through the various buildings explaining what happened here and at other concentration camps under the Nazi rule. Here you find a room full of crutches and artificial limbs taken from those who were considered not worthy to live. A room of reading glasses left behind by the owners as they entered the ‘showers’. A room full of children’s shoes the reminder of the innocence that was shattered during this time. Who would believe humans were capable of such evil. No wonder some want to believe it did not happen, but once there, once you see, once you hear the sounds, there is no doubt that it happened.
I asked our guide what he felt about people like us coming to ‘tour’ this sight. His response was that he welcomed the visitors so that they would understand that it was the Nazi’s that did this and that Poland was an occupied nation. The Poles too were oppressed by the Nazi’s. This young man told us about his father who as an eight year old boy during the German occupation and was given vodka and cigars to ruin the potential and to break his independence and create a dependency that would stop all possibilities and create hopelessness.
Psalm 25: 5
Our tour guide takes us through the various buildings explaining what happened here and at other concentration camps under the Nazi rule. Here you find a room full of crutches and artificial limbs taken from those who were considered not worthy to live. A room of reading glasses left behind by the owners as they entered the ‘showers’. A room full of children’s shoes the reminder of the innocence that was shattered during this time. Who would believe humans were capable of such evil. No wonder some want to believe it did not happen, but once there, once you see, once you hear the sounds, there is no doubt that it happened.
I asked our guide what he felt about people like us coming to ‘tour’ this sight. His response was that he welcomed the visitors so that they would understand that it was the Nazi’s that did this and that Poland was an occupied nation. The Poles too were oppressed by the Nazi’s. This young man told us about his father who as an eight year old boy during the German occupation and was given vodka and cigars to ruin the potential and to break his independence and create a dependency that would stop all possibilities and create hopelessness.
Psalm 25: 5
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
How can you see first hand the wall where the firing squad would do their duty, the 3ft by 3ft cells where prisoners would be bricked in with no exit and not be changed forever? What was that change, I don’t know if I can fully explain it? Understanding is probably the best word. The understanding that there is good and evil in this world, the understanding that I am so blessed, the understanding that without God all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. The understanding that we will only ever know in part what happened in camps like this here and around the world today.
Next M.E. – Secret Service
How can you see first hand the wall where the firing squad would do their duty, the 3ft by 3ft cells where prisoners would be bricked in with no exit and not be changed forever? What was that change, I don’t know if I can fully explain it? Understanding is probably the best word. The understanding that there is good and evil in this world, the understanding that I am so blessed, the understanding that without God all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. The understanding that we will only ever know in part what happened in camps like this here and around the world today.
Next M.E. – Secret Service
Fowl Words
1 comment:
Karen,
I once visited Dachau. It was a trip I will never forget!
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