Ending at the End

Today was our final day touring around Eastern Poland. We enjoyed our final dinner together at a "Jewish" restaurant (owned by Poles) and celebrated our friend Pauline's birthday with some cake and a present. There are two restaurants right next to each other on the street that have the same name- two brothers by the name of Ariel fought over the original restaurant, so one moved in next door and the two shops compete right next to each other to this day. We went to the better one of course.

Grandma and I are both very tired, for today was an emotionally exhausting day. We went to what for many is the symbol of the Holocaust- Auschwitz. And in many ways, the Auschwitz does embody the Holocaust.

Death was on a grand scale at Auschwitz. Basically the Nazis took over a small town in Poland and built not one but 3 camps plus additional satellite camps all over the countryside. Originally the plan was to house political prisoners, Polish POWs and intelligentsia in what is now called Auschwitz 1 (the original camp). However, as more and more Jews were rounded up, the camp quickly outgrew its capacity. Thus the second camp was created, 1.5 miles away, called Birkenau. Birkenau was created with the expressed purpose of killing the Jews, a "death camp" as opposed to a concentration camp like Auschwitz. But even it was small at first.

Auschwitz1- Row after row of barracks were prisoners were held

Auschwitz-1: Barbed wire, charged with 220 volts, kept prisoners in

Together these two camps constituted what was basically a small city. The camps were able to hold over 100,000 at a time, all working basically slave labor for the Nazis. Thus this was a concentration camp (where people work) not a death camp (where people die). Thus, people were not put to death here, but no effort was made to keep them alive. In brutal conditions from weather, overwork, disease, overcrowding, starvation, and beatings, it may have been better for many to die rather than live. Yes, prisoners (Jews, Poles, Russian POWs and Gypsies) were allowed to live, sleep and eat. But they were shot at the slightest provocation, punished brutally after escape attempts, forced to stand in the cold for hours as punishment or just for sport. They performed menial tasks all day, every day, with little nutrition or health care. Children wasted away and some were used for sadistically cruel medical experiments. Families were destroyed. But this was not enough.

Auschwitz-1: The Outside of a Gas Chamber. The chimney belongs to the crematorium

Auschwitz-1: Gate to the camp. Mockingly, it translates to "Work Makes you Free."

In the year 1942, the Nazis decided that the only way their goal of removing all Jews from Europe was going to work was to actually kill every Jew in their land. Thus, Birkenau underwent an "upgrade." It was dramatically enlarged (to 20 times the size of Auschwitz-1) and given 5 gas chambers. A railroad track ran right through the middle of the camp to drop off loads of victims every morning. At its peak, the camp was able to receive, kill and cremate 20,000 people a day. The numbers are sickening, but it is terrifying on an individual level. The entire trip, the Jews would be told that they are simply being shipped to work- families are shipped together. Then they disembark from the train, are split into a group of mothers and children and a group of men. Each is passed before a doctor who determines if they are fit for labor (even in their madness to kill, the Nazis desperately needed the services the Jews offered). Those that were selected for labor were herded off, told to strip, had their hair shaved off and their inmate number tattooed on. They shower and then are issued prison clothing. All their belongings are confiscated and kept in huge warehouses for German consumption.

Birkenau- most of the barracks were hastily burnt down by the Nazis to cover their guilt. You can see the sheer size of the camp here.

More of Birkenau

Birkenau: This is actually the shower where those spared for labor were cleaned, shaved and tatooed

Those not passing the test, the very old and very young (about 70% of victims) also are stripped. They must wait in line, underground in darkness and confusion as 1,000 at a time are shoved into what looks like a shower. But no water falls but instead pellets of poison. Cramped and blind, a 1,000 souls are lost in 4 minutes. Fellow Jews are forced to remove the twisted bodies and burn them in industrial ovens. There are simply no words for this.

Birkenau: Women's living quarters. 6 were crammed on each bunk

Birkenau: Pond outside gas chambers. Ashes were simply dumped here.

Each of us on this trip has our own interpretation of how this could happen. How could people do this to other people? How could the world stand idly by while this happened? How should Christians react to this kind of atrocity? What is God's role in this all?

These are questions that are monumental to grapple with, and require wisdom only God and God's Word can provide. We are praying for wisdom and strength and at the same time fleeing to the only resource that is our refuge at all times, the Bible.

~Charlie

From Grandma Theresa:

The madness that is the Holocaust is frightening to me because it was done with technology and segmentation. With Technology, when shooting victims one by one was seen to not be efficient, corps of engineers were put to work to figure a way to kill people faster and with less personal contact. Thus, the gas chambers and cremation ovens. When all was done and 1.5 million people had been murdered at Auschwitz there was nothing to show for evidence except piles of human hair (made into fabric for clothing) and suitcases full of the victims' belongings - separated and sent to Germany for consumption.

The segmentation had to do with the arrangement by which no one had to take responsibility for the atrocities that happened there. The trains were run by ordinary train people. The man in the watchtower just opened the prison gate for the train when it came in. Jewish prisoners were responsible for helping the next victims out of the cattlecars, someone else separated the men from the women and children, etc. Everyone along the bureaucratic line could say, "I was just doing my job and following orders." This is chilling. I must ask myself how easy is it for me to be just a "segment" in a line which led to death and destruction? Can this happen again? What about the Rwanda and the Darfur genocides? Do I stand silent in the face of such killing? It will take a lot of time to process our thoughts and examine our hearts.

Missing Home,
Charlie and Grandma