Oświęcim, or Auschwitz as most of us know it...

What images are evoked in your mind by that name? What feeling announces its presence in your gut when you hear it? What does this name make you feel? sadness… anger… fear… guilt… nausea… a sense of undeniable wrongness that never should have been allowed to exist at all. Perhaps there is no word in my language dark enough to express the realizations I made yesterday... There’s no way to communicate the degree of criminality that was perpetrated.

There is a well-needed dose of admonition and mournfulness that each one of us should receive, if we haven’t yet been fully apprised of it’s lessons. I feel that this, friends, should be a mandatory inoculation. No “antivaxers” allowed...

Before Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, Oświęcim was just a town in southern Poland (Polska) with a nearby former Polish military base… which was then repurposed into a machine of imprisonment, forced labor, torture, “experimentation”, humiliation and death. It is located about 1.5 hour from Krakow, one of Polands larger cities (currently, the 2nd largest, I believe). In the Spring of 1940, Oświęcim was located at an intersection of railways, and was surrounded by farmable land as well as factories – all of which were also commandeered and used for an increasingly heinous purpose. It ultimately became a very large and complex operation, consisting of 3 large camps and multiple smaller satellite camps... with an increasing capacity for murder and malevolence.

Originally, Oświęcim was utilized for the detention of political prisoners… Later, prisoners of war and other Nazi enemies were held there…. Not long after, however, it became central to Hitler’s “Final solution” to the “Jewish problem”… these words… the ones I put in quotations… are words that my hands are reluctant to peck out on the keyboard... I am loathe to give them life on my screen. They are not explicit, but they somehow manage to foreshadow something so dark and terrible, that I somehow feel like an accomplice by just giving them a bit of existence on this blog entry.

I am putting up just a few images here - they’re not terribly graphic, and they are not as invasive as they could be - not as invasive as they should be. I’ll spare most of the imagery, and leave any readers to decide how much rectitude and awareness may be needed in each case... But beware... once the first layer is removed, the visitor WILL BE drawn in... and should surrender to it... because we ALL lost something there forever... each of us died a bit...

Now I’ve walked through the ominous gates and dark doorways, stood where the humanely overcrowded rail cars delivered uprooted Jews to their demise... I’ve viewed the eery and monumental mountains of personal belongings left behind - I’ve peered into gas chambers and followed the long pathways to the crematoria. This morning when I walked the dim and foggy streets of Krakow, I felt as if I had finally completed a necessary and long overdue assignment, or finally had that difficult conversation I’d been avoiding. But, when the sun came out... it was noticeably brighter, and the air seemed more crisp and clear.

I suggest that we all try to visit this place... once, if possible... and educate each other... teach our children... correct the misrepresentations and prejudice. We’ll stand up and declare our sameness with others, communicate our affection for them... when we can, we’ll refuse to allow anyone to be hurt, humiliated, or marginalized.

Further: find someone you truly may not like... and look into their eyes, and see yourself there - because... you are... you are RIGHT THERE.