Evil is Real--But So Too, Is Goodness
Whilst in Poland, Debra and I felt duty bound to bear witness to the suffering of the victims of Auschwitz/Birkenau. These are a few of the photos I took.
These were not "just" death and slave labor camps: They were designed for the systemic torture of helpless people. Utter insanity.
I won't even attempt to describe the experience of seeing the bales human hair sheered from hundreds of thousands of murdered women before they were cremated, of the tens of thousands of shoes and toiletry items stolen from victims during the "sorting" process, or the horror of the starvation cells, the standing cells, the gibbets, the shooting wall, or of standing in a gas chamber where thousands of people perished, or the shock upon catching the first glimpse of the Arbeit Macht Frei gate at Auschwitz or that awful red brick building that stands astride the train tracks at Birkenau built to allow genocide bureaucrats to observe the sorting of human cargo.
Evil is real. Auschwitz proves it. And yet...even amidst the worst of which human beings are capable, even there, one still can find flickering evidence of true goodness. Suddenly, unexpectedly, there was the starvation cell in which Fr. Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a man with a family, who we were told, survived the Holocaust as a result of Kolbe's sacrifice.
Seeing Auschwitz/Birkenau was one of the most harrowing and anguishing experiences of my life. It is inexpressibly painful, but if you are ever near Krakow, please go. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to them. Never again!
Labels: Auschwitz. Evil.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:55 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
From a reader: "Thank you for publishing those pictures along with your commentary today. My maternal grandparents came from Poland and managed to get several relatives out before Hilter marched.
And I remember the nuns telling us about Fr. Maxillian Kohl and what he did before he was ever declared a saint in our church.
You are so right: Never again."
I was there in 2003. I concur with your description and will only add that the train ride between Krakow and Osweizem (Auschwitz) went through some of the most beautiful scenery that I've ever seen. What a sense of irony.
I can provide the link to my pictures if you want.
We took a bus tour from Krakow. Please, send the link. It is beautiful country. The Nazis cleared out about 5 towns in the area to build the slave labor/death camps, and allow corporations to build their plants to take advantage thereof. Thanks, Royale.
Welcome back Mr. Smith! I would like to hear more about this experience. We need your inspiration. What a stark reminder of what happens when we do not value all human life in every stage from conception onward. We must not let history repeat itself.
Harrowing, isn't it.
Welcome back.
(These were not "just" death and slave labor camps: They were designed for the systemic torture of helpless people. Utter insanity.)
Reminds me of retirement homes where elderly people who had suffered strokes are required to die slowly, painfully, and most importantly, PROFITABLY.
You have no idea what you are talking about and no understanding of history.
Ah, so torturing the elderly in retirement homes against their will is OK? Thanks for the honest response.
Tony:
1) I give you a D- for straying from topic.
2) Your critical remark could be taken to mean either that you think all nursing homes are the pits and need a total overhaul because the patients within deserve better (a sentiment I agree with) or that people who are old should be forced to die rather than suffer the indignity of a nursing home (which is just plain idiotic - death is much longer than life and every available moment of life should be lived fully).
3) Since nursing homes are split down about 50/50, there are plenty of good homes that are well maintained with adequate or superior staff, and lesser-quality homes are now under investigation, and as long as the patient's family is involved in his life, changes can be forced upon those who don't take the lives of the elderly seriously.
Meanwhile, death camps like the one Wesley visited (I had family at Treblinka on my mother's side, and my uncle on my father's side was part of the group that liberated another camp, have to ask dad which one it was again) were places where people were penned up with the direct purpose of murdering them, usually after eeking out the last of their strenght in slave labor.
You're comparing neglegence (which the community at large and the patient's family in particular are required to fight against) with out-and-out murder.
4) If you're saying that it's better to "let someone die with dignity" rather than caring for her to the natural end of her life, you're basically saying the same thing that neglegent family members and community members are saying - these folks aren't worth our time, only instead of having to pay money to take care of them, we're going to kill them off so that we don't have to bear the financial, emotional, and physical burden of caring for them.
All right, I'm done ranting at you, but I am still highly annoyed with this tactic. And *if* you weren't actively pushing for euthanasia here, you're not doing a good job of making your motives clear. For that, I give you an F.
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