Auschwitz-Birkenau

This blog post omits all pictures taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is to focus on what I believe to be the most important message to take away from Berlin and Krakow as regards the Holocaust, namely that the place, the people, and the propensity to do great evils was nothing unique. The terrors of the Holocaust were the results of popular and private inaction and belief in myths as expressed by the National Socialist party members in Germany. It is therefore not the intent of this blog post to memorialize the place or the actions that took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau via pictures, but rather to explain the reasons and facilitating conditions that led to those events taking place.

As I reflect on my time in Poland, my mind strays and finds itself ruminating over my experience at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I recall the cases of human hair, the mountains of shoes, the torture and gas chambers, and the memories that serve as mementos of the atrocities committed there. I recall these acts, which were evil but executed by un-extraordinary people. I recall the capacity of ordinary men and women to commit great evils against one another. The potential to sin is great because it requires--purely and simply--satisfaction with the status quo: a nondescript interest to do nothing.

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, it was the result of the paradox of democracy. Certainly, he enjoyed popular support by a populace thirsting for answers and action with a wariness toward skepticism and critical approaches to governance following heavy reparations and economic crisis in Germany. Very simply put, the National Socialist party came to power via democratic processes (namely, elections), but vital democratic values such as acceptance toward opposition, freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of belief were certainly compromised.

It would be foolish to believe that the horrors of the Holocaust cannot be repeated. They have been (especially in the Balkans, Rwanda, Sudan, and other places). Such hostile elements exist--within ourselves and within our societies. We must, therefore, be vigilant so as to hold ourselves and our peers accountable to ethical, legal, and popular standards that attempt to avoid the devolution of mankind into the unchecked revival of the attitudes and actions that led to the death of eleven million people.