August 24, 1998

August 24, 1998, Monday

By the Mysience town square, there was a bank where I could draw money on a credit card. After much driving I arrived at the town of Oswiecim , where the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenan, now a museum, were located.

The admission was free, but I did pay for parking and an English-speaking guide. The way people lived and died there was horrible. Many died the first day they arrived in camp. The women and children, except for twins under 12 years, the old and disabled were marked for death. A doctor at the train station decided who was physically strong enough to work and who was to die. The Jews slated for death were told to take off their clothes and get ready for showers. They were herded into a large room. The doors were closed in from a small opening in the ceiling cyanide pellets that turned into a deadly gas when exposed to air were dropped into the crowded chamber in the holes were immediately closed. In 5 to 10 minutes, everyone was dead. The hair was cut from the corpses to be used in weaving. The gold fillings were yanked from their mouths and the bodies three at a time were burned in the furnaces. Much of the work was done by Jewish prisoners who were allowed to live as long as they could work.

There was much cruel and inhuman treatment of the working prisoners and every attempt was made to dehumanize and humiliate them. When the Russians marched in, there were still 100,000 prisoners still alive and many corpses to be buried.

Reading about it and seeing newsreels on it is one thing. To be there and to be told the awful facts was mind boggling. I felt a little sick to my stomach and wondered how any person in his right mind could conceive of such horrible treatment of his fellow man.

The general in charge of the camp was brought to trial after the war and found guilty. He was brought back to Auschwitz and hung until dead. He deserved worse.

After some difficulty finding my way, I arrived in the city of Tychy and found a room in the Tychy hotel. It was an old hotel with out of date elevators, but it was a place to sleep