Auschwitz concentration camp has transformed from a place where people would never want to go, to a place where all of us should go.
It is a reminder of what humanity can and has done to its self. Perhaps this plaque shows the vastness of terror and evil that took place here, but until I stepped foot in these two Auschwitz camps I wasn't aware of the horror that took place. The people who were brought here were not only killed they were tortured and stripped of the things it means to be human.
Jordan and I did an extensive tour of the camps and Dan also saw a lot of what they show. We gained a little bit of perspective of why those men who fought in that war, who saw these horrors and then came home are not wanting to talk about their experience. I can't imagine wanting to tell people about the things
that happened here if I was a true witness to it.
There are rooms here that display some of the items taken from the prisoners: Shoes, suitcases, and toothbrushes. They even shaved their entire bodies and gathered the hair to be sold and made into socks for the Nazi soldiers. We saw a room with 2 tons of hair left behind not yet packed.
We were also shown the gas chambers where the most killing was done. It would be an underground bunker with 3 major rooms, one would be a room that was where all the prisoners were told "to undress themselves, and remember where they left their clothes so they would not be lost after their 'shower'". They would then move into the next room where they could fit 700-2000 people tightly depending on which camp they were at. At this point when they were all tightly squeezed into this huge shower room, a few cans would drop through the roof into the room. The cans were opened and filled with crystals that give off a gas that stops the oxygen circulate in your blood. This caused the people to internally suffocate, causing a very painful 20 min death. Often they left a loud truck running outside the building, to muffle the sound of the screaming. Then the bodies would taken out of the room into the third room where they were incinerated. Several incinerators all very easy to use would burn the people quickly afterwards. Those last rooms even had tracks in the floor for carts to load bodies and push them with ease straight onto a metal table that could slide into the fire and out with just the ash remaining.
All of this would be happening to about 80% of the people who got off the train their first day, because they were 'unfit to work', and that was decided in a three second glance. Those who were fit to work were doing jobs like shaving the new prisoners, sorting their things, and even hauling the dead bodies to the fire. Those who did that particular job were considered to be dangerous because they were the strongest and they knew too much, so as a result these workers would be killed and replaced every two weeks.
The short life for these prisoners was very terrible, often working them to death, sometimes with that exact purpose. Even time on the toilet was limited to 10 seconds twice a day. The people in this camp were tested to see how far they can be pushed before dieing. Experiments were done to see how little air a person could live with in their concrete cell, or some were made to stand in a cell too small for sitting for the night, all while being forced to work the next day. Many were starved as experiments, or cut open to have their living organs examined.
The horror of it all is sometimes more than I can comprehend. I find the more I hear about what happened here, the more I tend to separate myself from it. It doesn't seem real to the life that I life today. But just being here... seeing faces... looking at their hair, I see it's not a movie. Its very real. And the evil mastermind who put it all together, The King of lies, still wanders to and foe in this world causing pain and suffering. And it is only by God's grace that His power came through and has restored peace in this place.
I imagine that Auschwitz concentration camp was very close to hell on earth, but one thing Satan didn't take from those people was that... 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain'. That's a promise we all have from God.
Kenton
Auschwitz concentration camp has transformed from a place where people would never want to go, to a place where all of us should go.
It is a reminder of what humanity can and has done to its self. Perhaps this plaque shows the vastness of terror and evil that took place here, but until I stepped foot in these two Auschwitz camps I wasn't aware of the horror that took place. The people who were brought here were not only killed they were tortured and stripped of the things it means to be human.
Jordan and I did an extensive tour of the camps and Dan also saw a lot of what they show. We gained a little bit of perspective of why those men who fought in that war, who saw these horrors and then came home are not wanting to talk about their experience. I can't imagine wanting to tell people about the things 
that happened here if I was a true witness to it.
There are rooms here that display some of the items taken from the prisoners: Shoes, suitcases, and toothbrushes. They even shaved their entire bodies and gathered the hair to be sold and made into socks for the Nazi soldiers. We saw a room with 2 tons of hair left behind not yet packed.
We were also shown the gas chambers where the most killing was done. It would be an underground bunker with 3 major rooms, one would be a room that was where all the prisoners were told "to undress themselves, and remember where they left their clothes so they would not be lost after their 'shower'". They would then move into the next room where they could fit 700-2000 people tightly depending on which camp they were at. At this point when they were all tightly squeezed into this huge shower room, a few cans would drop through the roof into the room. The cans were opened and filled with crystals that give off a gas that stops the oxygen circulate in your blood. This caused the people to internally suffocate, causing a very painful 20 min death. Often they left a loud truck running outside the building, to muffle the sound of the screaming. Then the bodies would taken out of the room into the third room where they were incinerated. Several incinerators all very easy to use would burn the people quickly afterwards. Those last rooms even had tracks in the floor for carts to load bodies and push them with ease straight onto a metal table that could slide into the fire and out with just the ash remaining.
All of this would be happening to about 80% of the people who got off the train their first day, because they were 'unfit to work', and that was decided in a three second glance. Those who were fit to work were doing jobs like shaving the new prisoners, sorting their things, and even hauling the dead bodies to the fire. Those who did that particular job were considered to be dangerous because they were the strongest and they knew too much, so as a result these workers would be killed and replaced every two weeks.
The short life for these prisoners was very terrible, often working them to death, sometimes with that exact purpose. Even time on the toilet was limited to 10 seconds twice a day. The people in this camp were tested to see how far they can be pushed before dieing. Experiments were done to see how little air a person could live with in their concrete cell, or some were made to stand in a cell too small for sitting for the night, all while being forced to work the next day. Many were starved as experiments, or cut open to have their living organs examined.
The horror of it all is sometimes more than I can comprehend. I find the more I hear about what happened here, the more I tend to separate myself from it. It doesn't seem real to the life that I life today. But just being here... seeing faces... looking at their hair, I see it's not a movie. Its very real. And the evil mastermind who put it all together, The King of lies, still wanders to and foe in this world causing pain and suffering. And it is only by God's grace that His power came through and has restored peace in this place.
I imagine that Auschwitz concentration camp was very close to hell on earth, but one thing Satan didn't take from those people was that... 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain'. That's a promise we all have from God.
Kenton
2 comments:
...I'm speechless...that was a very moving entry about one of the most horrific places on earth! Thanks for your insight...it gives us all a little more prespective. We serve a God thats even bigger than that!
Purdy
Wow.
Kenton, you did an excellent job of giving a small glimpse into the horror of what happened there. I do agree with you that I tend to separate myself from that kind of pain and the thoughts of what reality was for them. I cannot even imagine.
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