It's just another day for you and me in paradise....

You may be wondering: Why would anyone go to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp while on vacation? Vacation should be fun, relaxing, and joyful---right? I agree. However, I also feel that it is important while on vacation in a foreign country to get to know the people, the history, and the culture. So, while I was on vacation in the beautiful town of Krakow, Poland, I took a side trip to visit Auschwitz---the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration and extermination camps.
I have read books about the Holocaust, seen movies, and have even been to the former concentration camps in Dachau Germany and Mauthausen Austria and have visited other places related to the Holocaust such as Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, the beaches, cemeteries and museums in Normandy and the Jewish quarter and cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic. All of these places stir something inside me ... a feeling that seems strange yet familiar, like it was there all the time, just below the surface, waiting to rise up and boil in the pit of my stomach. And when it hits your head you become heavy and nausea grips you tightly as you fight to keep it down. In these places you become claustrophobic and even afraid. At Auschwitz I felt all of this tenfold. Auschwitz was the Nazi's largest extermination camp. At least 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz. The trip to Auschwitz was one I will never forget. By coincidence, the day I went to Auschwitz happened to be the 20 year anniversary of the first free election in Poland. Suffice it to say there was much to celebrate this day, after years of Nazi and then Communist rule. This ongoing celebration was a stark contrast to what awaited me at Auschwitz. I knew it would be grim, but I was not prepared for the horror that I would experience. I use the word "experience", because that is exactly what it is. You do not simply visit and "see" Auschwitz. You smell it, you taste it, you hear it screaming, and you definitely feel it. I doubt that you can fully take in what I am about to describe....but try to imagine some of things the Nazis left behind--a room filled with 80,000 shoes---mens', womens', childrens', and babies' shoes; Shoes of the dead--the murdered. Try to envision a room full of hair--two tons of hair; hair still braided, hair with decayed ribbons tied at the ends. Now try to imagine that this hair was used to make fabric; fabric for Nazi uniforms. If you are feeling somewhat nauseous right now, try to imagine standing in that room with the hair in front of you, and a sample of fabric laying there next to it. Try to imagine that a quarter of a million children were murdered there. Right there. In the very place that you are standing. Try to imagine that a doctor came to this place and did medical experiments on other humans, especially children who were twins.
I understand that there are people who claim that the Holocaust is not real, that it did not happen, that it was fabricated. While at Auschwitz I thought about this. And I wanted to believe them. I desperately wanted to believe that none of it was real, that none of it happened. I read somewhere that humans are the only species that kill each other in war-like situations. This is not entirely true. War (systematic extermination of another group of the same species) has been observed in chimpanzees and ringtailed lemurs. I would like to think that we are much more evolved than chimpanzees and lemurs. But it seems that in this respect we are not.
At the end our visit, our Polish guide stated that Auschwitz has been made into a museum and preserved so that visitors (over one million a year) will learn about what happened there and never forget---so that we don't ever allow this to happen again. I reminded her that it has happened again---that genocide is occurring at this very moment in Africa. And yet somehow, we go about our lives, giving it barely a thought most days. Ironically the term genocide was coined in 1943 by the Jewish-Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin who combined the Greek word "genos" (race or tribe) with the Latin word "cide" (to kill).
I should add that the trip to Auschwitz began with a bus ride. The song on the Polish radio station played "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins. I found myself singing along, recognizing the poignant significance of the lyrics---And I wondered if anyone else on that busload of people was thinking how fitting the song was for a bus trip to Auschwitz~
She calls out to the man on the street
sir, can you help me?
Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?
He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there
Oh think twice, its another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, its just another day for you,
You and me in paradise
She calls out to the man on the street
He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet
Cant walk but shes trying
Oh think twice, its another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, its just another day for you,
You and me in paradise
Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say
You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that shes been there
Probably been moved on from every place
cos she didnt fit in there
Oh think twice, its another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, its just another day for you,
You and me in paradise