A Day of Reflection

Today we packed our bags and left the Novotel Centrum in Warsaw. It was a somber morning, with grey skies and rainy wind. This was appropiate for us, knowing as we did that our travels today would involve visiting the Treblinka death camp and a site of a Jewish mass grave.

From Theresa:

For years I have known about the three major "death camps" - Treblinka being the main camp for the 265,000 Jews of Warsaw to be exterminated. It was a very sobering day for all of us. (There is a book called THE THREE CAMPS by Arad which Shalmi mentioned to us). The death camps were different from the concentration camps. In the death camps, people were sent to be killed quickly and "efficiently". The most fascinating and scary person at Treblinka was Stengl, the director of Treblinka. Train loads of 6,000 Jews at a time were brought from Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka, unloaded and the men and women were put in different sides. Some men were chosen to be workers in the camp. All of the others were taken immediately to the gas chambers where carbon monoxide from a tank was blown into the chambers. After being murdered, the bodies were burned in large pits. This man was efficient, a Viennese detective, and a strong practicing Catholic. He must have known that to kill 1.5 million innocent people was wrong. This is the chilling reality. At 5 AM each morning he would stand on the train platform in his white jacket to receive the incoming victims.

Remnant of train tracks leading into Treblinka:

Charlie's Note: Treblinka was a place where 1.1 million Jews were killed in less than a year. Yet there is no trace of any of the activities, just flat land and of course the memorial. The land is actually quite beautiful and quiet, but this very quietness is what is haunting about the place. It truly was sobering to be there- I spent several minutes just pondering the whole situation and how evil Man can be.

The Memorial at Treblinka:

Later, in the little town of Tykocin, we heard the story of what happened in a small village with about 1,000 Jewish people in northeastern Poland, near the Russian border. On Aug 18-19, 1941 German soldiers came into the town on their way to fight Russia. They called all the Jews into the small market area, loaded the women and children on trucks and marched the men about 3 miles into the forest and shot them to death.

Lovely Tykocin:

Today some of the gentiles of the town have restored the 17th century synagogue in the town and made a museum. As we walked to the river that runs through the town, a wedding party drove up to the large Catholic church in the square. I took a picture of the beautiful blond bride and her soon-to-be husband. It was Saturday afternoon and everyone was dressed in their best. What a stark contrast to what happened in this place. It was a scene from a movie.

Charlie's Note: Yes, the town did seem like something from a movie, with the quaint little homes and the smoothly flowing river. But we were only able to stay a while before we went to where the Jews were actually shot. What a sad place! Row by row, people of all ages were lined up, gunned down and haphazardly buried. The next in line to be executed had to watch in complete horror. Again, the forest is very far from civilization and is amazingly quiet. There weren't even any animals nearby. The perfect place to murder a thousand people.

The Jewish Mass Grave:

Today there is certainly much to think about, about the capacity of myself to make the same choice the Germans did and shoot innocents, about the capacity of Mankind to so ruthlessly slaughter one another, and the capacity of God to restrain the wrath that the world so richly deserves. Forgive us, Lord!

Tonight we are in Bialystok for one night.

Charlie's Note: We also enjoyed a fine dinner tonight of chicken filets and mashed potatoes. There are some great guys here to talk to- an pastor named Paul from Britain and another young man, Frank from Germany.

Also, we had a strange experience at lunch today. I wanted to sample some real Polish Kielbasa, and Grandma wanted some soup. So we agreed to share both. However, with the language barrier, our cashier thought we were ordering kielbasa and soup for both of us. We thought was strange when the total came to 38 zloty ($19) but it was even stranger when 2 plates of kielbasa, 2 bowls of soup and a large basket of bread came out. It was feast that we certainly weren't expecting! We shared the food and a laugh with everyone.

All quiet on the Eastern Front-

Theresa and Charlie