Rachel Lucas: Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau

These are photos, from Rachel Lucas, of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, in Oświęcim, Poland. Ms. Lucas' photo-essay is here, '“We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else”.' Be sure to read it all. Ms. Lucas' feelings of anticipation, fear, and yearnings for mysteries unfolded made me well-up a couple of times:

The title is a quote by Elie Wiesel and I use it because I’ve spent the last several weeks trying to write this post but failing, especially when it came to the title. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I titled this a hillbilly travelogue, and what do you name a blog post about Auschwitz-Birkenau?

We had 3 days in Krakow, and set aside the first day for our trip to Auschwitz. This is something I have wanted to do for a very, very long time. I started reading about WWII and the Holocaust when I was 10 years old and have never stopped. It’s one of those things that you just can’t let go until you finally understand it, and I’ll never completely understand it.

The first picture of this post is the first one I took at Birkenau. As you can see, there was a thunderstorm brewing. The truth is, the whole scene was surreal, and very oddly beautiful. I hate to say that, but it is true. The grass was the most intense saturated lush green you can imagine, and it was about 72 degrees, and the deep gray clouds loomed and thundered and rained on us in between bouts of sunshine – - and the incongruity of it all is something I will never forget in my lifetime.

There was such natural beauty visible to any human standing in the middle of Birkenau that day. It was as if nature was asserting herself over all the despair and ugliness. Look how green I can be, feel this perfect air, listen to this thunder, there is always something good that will come out of something awful.

But it is still awful, and always will be awful, in ways no words can tell.

Don't miss the whole thing. I too have been studying Nazi history since I was a little boy. And I wrote my dissertation on the inadaquacies of the Western democracies in balancing German power (and in deterring the outbreak of World War II) as the scholarly result of my own fascination with Germany's 20th century history.

I too will visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. And I'm hoping it's going to be sooner rather than later. My sister's husband is Hungarian, and I've been invited to spend time with the family in Eastern Europe any time. When my sister came home from visiting last Christmas, I told her I wanted to visit Auschwitz. I can't go quite yet, but thanks so much to Rachel Lucas for sharing her pilgrimage and reminding me not only that I need to go, but that's it's essential to do so.

(Related: "Nazi Germany's Years of Extermination, 1939-1945.")