THE PATH TO CREMETORIUM #5
Raw
Stripped away
Emotions churning
And yet,
we who follow the path
can never know
the horror, the shock, the dread
you felt as you held the hands
of your small children
and stumbled along.
How can one truly express the enormity and complexity that is Auschwitz/Birkenau? How can one even attempt to make sense of such systematic, organized death? Standing in the guard tower at the entrance to Birkenau, the incredible vastness - the row after row after row of rectangular barracks (or in some cases, the outline of them) stretch on and on. And, the Nazis wanted to double the size...
Walking the path -- the uneven, rock strewn endless path from the train to death. We were all overcome with dread, and we were just observers...How many thousands, hundreds of thousands came this way -- exhausted, starving, and hoping upon hope that they could just live. On either side of the path, on the other side of the fence were the emaciated prisoners in the striped uniforms.
The heroics of simply putting one foot in front of the other do follow that path to where it led...Astounding.
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