Auschwitz

I’m sure there’s not a better word that can evoke terror.  Just try walking through it.

We did. And while I will try very hard not to make this morose and hopeless, the fact it that just walking on the ground that they walked on, just entering the doorways that they entered, just stepping through the gate emblazoned with the false promise each of them read is so debilitating that its very hard to keep this light.

Maybe I’ll start with what my wife wrote on Facebook yesterday:

“It happened therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say” -Primo Levy

… no words for what this place looks like or the endless horrors that occurred here. It is beyond me how people could be so unimaginably cruel to each other. Remember before the war the men and woman that killed and tortured these innocent souls had regular jobs like farmers, bakers , cooks. Being here makes you realize how easily it could happen again.

Beware of the signs, they are all around us . Knowledge is power. Teach your children, teach your friends. Get involved. Never forget.

The photographs were all taken yesterday.  It has taken me the day to put my fingers on the keys to share some thoughts.  So much goes through your mind as you walk.  How could they do this?  Why is it so big?  What did it feel like to be there?  How could I have remained hopeful?  Could I have remained hopeful?  What would I have done?

Much is either as it was, or restored to as it was.  In the barracks, the beds…

the facilities…

the places they might put you if…

But it’s when you walk the grounds and see the guard towers, the barbed wire, and imagine the constant berating by the soldiers, the lack of food and water, that’s when it hits you.

Once you come in, they will never let you leave.

And we come here to bear witness, to tell others that what happened was not inconceivable.  It was not committed by a brutal race of people.  It happened, not very long ago, for reasons that the ages will have to determine.  But it happened.

You stepped through the doorway thinking you were taking a shower.

And they did not just kill you, or let you die.  There were so many, where could they put them?  Where would they find the room?  This is how.

And then you are gone.