Day 3- Always remember

It has been a profoundly moving day. After our Polish-style Hampton Inn breakfast buffet,we boarded the bus at 7:45. We headed to Oswiecim, or as it is more commonly known, Auschwitz. It seemed to be a long drive and I had to remind myself that we were sitting in a nice comfortable air-conditioned bus.  Many of the prisoners traveled to Auschwitz stuffed into cattle cars, standing with no water or food.  I found out later that some of these prisoners had a train ride of over 2,000 km to get there AND they had to buy their own tickets.  I truly never thought I would stand in that place and was very grateful for the chance to see it.

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Auschwitz was actually three camps.  We began our tour in Auschwitz I which is entered through the famous gate - Arbeit Macht Frei.



The sanitary conditions in the barricks were very bad.  Often the floors were covered with straw.

These are shoes and suitcases taken from prisoners upon their arrival.

Death Wall: This is where many prisoners were executed.

Father Richards leads us in a prayer outside Maximilian Kolbe's cell.  Saint Maximilian Kolbe was a priest who chose to go to his death in the place of another prisoner.  This man did survive the war and spent his life living in a manner that would honor the sacrifice Kolbe made.

The commandant of the camp, Rudolph Hess, was hanged here after the war for crimes against humanity.

I have many other pictures that I took today.  We also went to Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and saw the famous gate with the train tracks.  This was the main extermination camp.  Those pictures are on my phone which is not with me at the moment and will be added later. 

It was very sobering to see this place that was the scene of so much cruelty and torture that also had countering elements of mercy and self-sacrifice.  Some in our group could not help but see the parallels in our world today with what is going on in the Middle East.  What will it take before we stand up and do something?  Will our descendants look back and ask - how could they let that happen?

 

Our afternoon was spent in Wadewice, the birthplace of John Paul II.  We celebrated Mass in the church where he was baptized and then went to see the museum.  This is a relatively new museum and was incredibly designed to tell the story of this truly great man.  No pictures were allowed in the museum but I will add pictures of the church. 

 

I will be adding to this page but now must go to bed.   We must be on the bus at 5:30 am to catch a 7:35 flight to Vienna and then Florence. 

Enjoying this trip greatly.  Thanks for your prayers as ours are with you.