Friday, July 25, 2003

I do not know quite how to describe the feelings from Auschwitz. It is definitely not something that I have ever been close to before. I did not cry, but came close a couple times. In the gas chambers at Birkenau there was a Jewish ceremony going on. I really did not have enough time to take it all in that would take quite a while, but I would have liked a little more. The vastness of Birkenau is what really hits you. 300 or so shelters spread as far as you could see. Most were just chimneys left after wooden buildings had fallen around them. There was a pool of water that was the resting place of many of the ashes left behind. You see the video and even walk around and you still cannot begin to realize what it must have been like. I bought a book for Nathan that is the story of a survivor. Maybe after reading that, you may have a better idea.

Saw the cell that Saint Kolbe was put in when they were starving him. I had thought that he was shot, but the cell said that he starved to death, and then a postcard said he was shot. I guess it does not matter how someone died at a concentration camp, just that so many did. The railroad tracks were kind of spooky. Just knowing that a million people had been brought along those tracks to be exterminated gives you chills to walk along it. I took a rock from the tracks as a reminder, though I do not see how anyone could forget. The museums and pictures were quite graphic and some of the stories that were told were quiet gruesome. Something I had never heard before was that they would put your hands behind your back, tie wrist, and hang you by your wrist. I did not see any pictures of this, but I would think that this would just break your arms, not that that is not bad; it just does not seem like torture.

I am kind of curious, I know the Nazis were about quick massive killing, but when they wanted to torture a person to death, why not crucify them. Was it too religious, too messy, and not quick enough? They would starve you to death; witch could take a very long time. If they hated the Jews so much, why not resort back to the cruelest ways to kill them. I also did not realize their gas chambers would take at least 12 minutes to kill those inside. Once a person realized what was going on and that they were not heading for the “showers”, you had 12 minutes of agony and pain. I still think the worst punishment they could give a Jew is cremating the dead, which they did give that job to Jews, but I do not know if it was as a punishment.
I am rooming with a guy from Pisa now and we are heading on a tour of Krakow in a little while. I do not think there are too many doing it and I am not quite sure what all we are going to see, but since I do not know too much about the town, it should be interesting.