Auschwitz

We took a short trip to Poland two weeks ago. Torben's parents and sister went there for their summer vacation and since they were so close, Torben and I joined them for 4 days. It was cool to be with them again and to practice my Danish. I'm getting better!!! This was the first time I could actually tell I was getting better. You know, complete sentences, understanding jokes, etc. Okay, my grammar still sucks, but who cares. I can make myself understood more, which helps with the whole relating to the in-laws thing. It was good to visit with them and it was a HUGE relief to the brain to exit Cyrillic land if only for a few days. I never appreciated being able to read street signs until I moved to a country where I couldn't!

During our time in Krakow, Poland, we took a day trip to Auschwitz - the biggest Nazi concentration/extermination camp. I have never experienced anything so chilling and sobering before. We were part of a tour, and our guide was really good. He told a lot of horrifying facts, but he wasn't trying to pull heart strings or crying as he did. The things we saw brought up enough emotions as it was. We actually stood inside a gas chamber, looking up at the holes in the ceiling where they dropped in the poisonous gas.

At the first part of the camp, where they kept mostly political prisoners (Poles, Russians, etc.), I was surprised because the buildings were brick and looked just like normal dorms or something. Then, we went to the much bigger part and I saw the horrible little buildings I had heard about.

The most chilling thing for me was to see a small amount of the things that the Nazis took from the prisoners upon arrival at the camp. We saw collections of thousands of shoes, empty suitcases, glasses, pots, even human hair. One of the empty suitcases had "Jeanette" written on it. Very chilling.

Besides the very natural feelings of horror and sadness I had that day and the days following, I also have thought a lot about forgiveness, the capability of each human to become a monster no better than the Nazis, and the grace of God that saves us from that. I know, nice and light topics :) I'm still processing it weeks later. I am glad to have experienced it, even though it was tough emotionally.