Approximately 1,100,000 people were killed in the Auschwitz and Birkenau labor and concentration camps during WWII. There are no sure numbers since as the war progressed and the extermination of Jews quickened, the Nazis didn't even keep track of the victims. Most of us know about the attrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jewish population across Europe. Today, Molly and I walked the same path as some of the victims of history.
We walked under the Auschwitz welcome sign stating "Working is Liberation". We walked thru th barracks were hundreds of men and women where packed together in unthinkable living conditions. We saw the pyramids of suitcases, shoes, glasses, clothing, personal items confiscated by the German troops. We saw piles of human hair shaved from the arriving that was used to make socks and blankets for the Axis forces. We walked thru a gas chamber and crematorium.
Words can not describe what people witnessing this place were feeling. Thousands of people coming to create a personal memory of the attrocities that occurred in the 1940's. I was sickened by a feeling of tourism and voyerism, yet it was offset by the payment of respect to the victims and the recognition of a time in history that should never be forgotten.
"THE ONE WHO DOES NOT REMEMBER HISTORY, IS BOUND TO LIVE THROUGH IT AGAIN"~George Santayana
I have put my mind around the events of this place. I allowed myself to feel the sadness and despair of what happened. I thought angry, terrible thoughts about the participants in this painful experiment in human genocide. I have honored and paid tribute to the lost. I have included the journey here and now I will put it behind me as we continue our travels away from Eastern Europe.
