"One who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!!!"
It was drizzling and grey skies welcomed me with a sense of gloom and dread. It wasn't a place you look forward to visiting. It isn't a place that welcomes you with energetic vibes but with despair.
A Christmas eve roadtrip led us to the most unlikely destination... Auschwitz. When all the destinations of pleasure closed their doors on us, Auschwitz kept its door open. I thought there wasn't a better day to visit this place because this destination represents what it means to be happy, human and alive. Anybody who stepped into this place left those at the entry gates and never returned to collect it again.
The words on the top of the gate was a proud announcement of a man's ambition. The words represent the strong will of man to work against all odds and succeed. However, these words had a different meaning to the hundreds and thousands of people who entered through this gate. For them, it was their destiny... to work for free... and, let that work set you free, when you die of exhaustion, cold or with poison gas.
Every day, men, women and children streamed out of this gate... in fives... walking in beat... to the music of the orchestra played by the captured musicians. Every evening, they returned... hunched and tired... carrying their dead... shivering in the piercing cold of the harsh polish winter... Always a few lesser than those who left in the morning. Back in fives... marching to the music. With a soul that couldn't be captured or broken, they walked back with their heads held high proving that you don't need a weapon to defeat the enemy.
It was a family of five holding hands. The father holding his eldest on one side... the second youngest standing between the parents... the mother holding the baby. All of them were facing a grey wall...
An uniformed man leisurely walks to them. He raises his pistol and shoots the baby dead. None of the others moved because they know they would be the next. Tears running down the eyes, the mother bites her lips to hold a scream escaping it.
His pistol rises again... as the child between the parents dropped dead. A wry smile appears on the lips of the devil. He checks if any of the parents move so that he could enjoy shooting them out of order. Not a movement apart from the tears.
He moves behind the eldest son... who breaks the calm. He struggles to escape. The animal laughed at the futile attempt of an innocent child. He beats the child and pushes him down. Standing on the shoulders of child... which probably broke because of his weight... he shoots the struggling child. The body shuddered in fits as he moved to the mother.
Having lost her children, the mom was numb and calm. She was eagerly waiting for death... Death that would take her back to the children. She wasn't grieving for her dead children as she was about to happily join them on the other side. She became sad as she saw her husband next to her. He would be left alone in this world. Her heart was ripped between the dead children and the living husband. Her next thought was interrupted by the roar of the pistol... and, she fell down with a longing stare at the husband.
The husband stood there alone but not afraid. He was a man over whom the animal with the pistol had no control over. The animal did not have anything more to scare him... he didn't have to worry about the animal harming his family. There was nothing he need to be afraid of. He turned around to face the pistol... with a smile on his face. The bullet that pierced into his forehead could not destroy the smile of a free man. There was only one winner in that duel and he lay dead with a smile on his face.
Those who were transported to Auschwitz in rail wagons meant for animals, one's life was reduced to a hand gesture of an SS doctor...who spent not more than few seconds to gauge the usefulness of the prisoner...
- When the thumb pointed to the left, you survived to live another day.
- When the thumb pointed to the right, you were doomed to die that very day.
On a calm day, I am sure you could hear the screams of the dying humans being killed just because they can't shovel the earth fast enough... just because they were too young... just because they were too old... just because they were too pregnant!!!
The prisoners were told they were being re-settled. In the eagerness of new life, they brought with them 50 kilos of their most vaunted belongings. The belongings that laid unclaimed when the animals were finished with them. The abandoned suitcases, brushes, glasses, cups and bowls stayed back to tell the stories of their dead owners.
The walls are filled with photos with the dates of their arrival and the dates of their demise... and, most of the dates were just a few months apart... and mostly, in the same year. The typical lifespan of the unfortunate prisoners was not more than a few months. If the harsh polish winter didn't break you, the backs of the soldier's rifles did... If the congested living quarters didn't kill you, the gas chambers sure did... If you didn't die of starving, you sure did with the hardship of working...
Whatever it might be... Death creeped on them... slowly and surely.
On the right is a living quarters in a barrack with each barrack containing about 700 people. There were about 500-600 of them spread across the field. The three-tiered bunker was literally a torture cell with each cubicle allowing 5-6 people to cram. The lowest tier was directly on the cold floor and the weakest of the prisoners found themselves here because they couldn't fight for the higher cells. They endured their sickness in addition to the mice, lice and pests infesting the barracks. The middle cell looks warm and cozy... only until you hear their difficulties. With starving comes diarrhea... and, when the prisoners purged in their bunkers, the dripping purge drenched the ones lying underneath. Such was the agony and suffering of those who lived.
On the left is the dilapidated remains of a gas chamber which consumed hundreds of thousands. The Irony was that the Nazis had a beautiful garden around it. For an outsider, it did not seem like a chamber of death. The prisoners were told to disrobe to take a shower and disinfect. Thousands of prisoners crammed into a room which had fake shower fittings meant to fools them. Once they were locked inside, the lights were switched off and the SS soliders dropped "Cyclone B" - a poison meant to kill them - through special vents from the top. In pitch darkness... with suffocating fumes... trying in vain to escape, they stomped on one another... inhaling the fumes of death... scratching the walls to burrow their ways outside... they died a death that lasted 20 minutes. The naked bodies were then retrieved and cremated... not before their gold teeth were pried out by the vultures.
It was a zero-sum game with no better outcome than death.
With passing of a villain, arrives a hero... like the one we met as our guide to Auschwitz.
The person who shared these painful stories was a pregnant guide born in the vicinity of the site. She carried her unborn child through the paths of pain and torture. When I enquired about how she endures narrating these ghastly stories day-in and day-out, her teary response was something that I will always remember through my lifetime.
When I joined this job, I thought the pain would pass... I thought it would be become normal... I was so badly mistaken... The pain never goes away... It comes back every time I talk about it... I have thought about leaving this god forsaken job... But, I keep coming back... Walking miles in a day... showing the world the consequences of our mistakes... My suffering doesn't matter as long as it makes people understand... The importance of this place is not in its suffering... but, in its resilience of humanity... to overcome the odds... to believe that life is never over... until the last one of us drops dead!!!Only thing, she requested all of us to remember was...
Original link
It was drizzling and grey skies welcomed me with a sense of gloom and dread. It wasn't a place you look forward to visiting. It isn't a place that welcomes you with energetic vibes but with despair.
A Christmas eve roadtrip led us to the most unlikely destination... Auschwitz. When all the destinations of pleasure closed their doors on us, Auschwitz kept its door open. I thought there wasn't a better day to visit this place because this destination represents what it means to be happy, human and alive. Anybody who stepped into this place left those at the entry gates and never returned to collect it again.
Arbeit Macht Frie (Work Will Set You Free)
The words on the top of the gate was a proud announcement of a man's ambition. The words represent the strong will of man to work against all odds and succeed. However, these words had a different meaning to the hundreds and thousands of people who entered through this gate. For them, it was their destiny... to work for free... and, let that work set you free, when you die of exhaustion, cold or with poison gas.
Every day, men, women and children streamed out of this gate... in fives... walking in beat... to the music of the orchestra played by the captured musicians. Every evening, they returned... hunched and tired... carrying their dead... shivering in the piercing cold of the harsh polish winter... Always a few lesser than those who left in the morning. Back in fives... marching to the music. With a soul that couldn't be captured or broken, they walked back with their heads held high proving that you don't need a weapon to defeat the enemy.
The Wall of Death
It was a family of five holding hands. The father holding his eldest on one side... the second youngest standing between the parents... the mother holding the baby. All of them were facing a grey wall...
An uniformed man leisurely walks to them. He raises his pistol and shoots the baby dead. None of the others moved because they know they would be the next. Tears running down the eyes, the mother bites her lips to hold a scream escaping it.
His pistol rises again... as the child between the parents dropped dead. A wry smile appears on the lips of the devil. He checks if any of the parents move so that he could enjoy shooting them out of order. Not a movement apart from the tears.
He moves behind the eldest son... who breaks the calm. He struggles to escape. The animal laughed at the futile attempt of an innocent child. He beats the child and pushes him down. Standing on the shoulders of child... which probably broke because of his weight... he shoots the struggling child. The body shuddered in fits as he moved to the mother.
Having lost her children, the mom was numb and calm. She was eagerly waiting for death... Death that would take her back to the children. She wasn't grieving for her dead children as she was about to happily join them on the other side. She became sad as she saw her husband next to her. He would be left alone in this world. Her heart was ripped between the dead children and the living husband. Her next thought was interrupted by the roar of the pistol... and, she fell down with a longing stare at the husband.
The husband stood there alone but not afraid. He was a man over whom the animal with the pistol had no control over. The animal did not have anything more to scare him... he didn't have to worry about the animal harming his family. There was nothing he need to be afraid of. He turned around to face the pistol... with a smile on his face. The bullet that pierced into his forehead could not destroy the smile of a free man. There was only one winner in that duel and he lay dead with a smile on his face.
The wagons of death
Those who were transported to Auschwitz in rail wagons meant for animals, one's life was reduced to a hand gesture of an SS doctor...who spent not more than few seconds to gauge the usefulness of the prisoner...
- When the thumb pointed to the left, you survived to live another day.
- When the thumb pointed to the right, you were doomed to die that very day.
On a calm day, I am sure you could hear the screams of the dying humans being killed just because they can't shovel the earth fast enough... just because they were too young... just because they were too old... just because they were too pregnant!!!
The prisoners were told they were being re-settled. In the eagerness of new life, they brought with them 50 kilos of their most vaunted belongings. The belongings that laid unclaimed when the animals were finished with them. The abandoned suitcases, brushes, glasses, cups and bowls stayed back to tell the stories of their dead owners.
The walls are filled with photos with the dates of their arrival and the dates of their demise... and, most of the dates were just a few months apart... and mostly, in the same year. The typical lifespan of the unfortunate prisoners was not more than a few months. If the harsh polish winter didn't break you, the backs of the soldier's rifles did... If the congested living quarters didn't kill you, the gas chambers sure did... If you didn't die of starving, you sure did with the hardship of working...
Whatever it might be... Death creeped on them... slowly and surely.
A Zero-sum Life
On the right is a living quarters in a barrack with each barrack containing about 700 people. There were about 500-600 of them spread across the field. The three-tiered bunker was literally a torture cell with each cubicle allowing 5-6 people to cram. The lowest tier was directly on the cold floor and the weakest of the prisoners found themselves here because they couldn't fight for the higher cells. They endured their sickness in addition to the mice, lice and pests infesting the barracks. The middle cell looks warm and cozy... only until you hear their difficulties. With starving comes diarrhea... and, when the prisoners purged in their bunkers, the dripping purge drenched the ones lying underneath. Such was the agony and suffering of those who lived.
On the left is the dilapidated remains of a gas chamber which consumed hundreds of thousands. The Irony was that the Nazis had a beautiful garden around it. For an outsider, it did not seem like a chamber of death. The prisoners were told to disrobe to take a shower and disinfect. Thousands of prisoners crammed into a room which had fake shower fittings meant to fools them. Once they were locked inside, the lights were switched off and the SS soliders dropped "Cyclone B" - a poison meant to kill them - through special vents from the top. In pitch darkness... with suffocating fumes... trying in vain to escape, they stomped on one another... inhaling the fumes of death... scratching the walls to burrow their ways outside... they died a death that lasted 20 minutes. The naked bodies were then retrieved and cremated... not before their gold teeth were pried out by the vultures.
It was a zero-sum game with no better outcome than death.
Villains & Heroes
Evil manifests itself into many shapes. It darkens the hearts of those whom it enslaves. Two of its staunchest disciples were the death dealer - SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Rudolf Hoss and the angel of death - Dr. Josef Mengele. While the dealer of death found his pleasure in squeezing the life out of the living... the angel found it in experimenting on the living. The dealer thrived on the deaths and the angel on it fight for survival. These monsters lived to find the most innovative means to kill people... until fate caught up with them. The dealer was hanged in the same camp where he snuffed out the lives of millions... not far from the palace where he lived a life of luxury with his wife and children... with beautiful garden and, even a swimming pool... not far from the gas chamber which was digesting the lives of prisoners... thousands at a time.With passing of a villain, arrives a hero... like the one we met as our guide to Auschwitz.
The person who shared these painful stories was a pregnant guide born in the vicinity of the site. She carried her unborn child through the paths of pain and torture. When I enquired about how she endures narrating these ghastly stories day-in and day-out, her teary response was something that I will always remember through my lifetime.
When I joined this job, I thought the pain would pass... I thought it would be become normal... I was so badly mistaken... The pain never goes away... It comes back every time I talk about it... I have thought about leaving this god forsaken job... But, I keep coming back... Walking miles in a day... showing the world the consequences of our mistakes... My suffering doesn't matter as long as it makes people understand... The importance of this place is not in its suffering... but, in its resilience of humanity... to overcome the odds... to believe that life is never over... until the last one of us drops dead!!!Only thing, she requested all of us to remember was...
Original link
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