Welcome to Auschwitz

"Welcome to Auschwitz." The survivor said.

A paradox really, he's a Christian and his name is Stanislaus.

I step down from the bus and blink into the kaleidoscope

of a dappled morning sunlight. Nothing has changed!

It is all still there! Just like the photographs taken by the Home Army.

No bodies, but the awful presence of death,

enormous death, 10 kilometres of death.

Auschwitz 1 - A Slave Labour Camp.

Auschwitz 2 - A Death Camp.

Auschwitz 3 - A Chemical/Munitions Factory.

Death envelopes me, engulfs me, enters my body

through my eyes, mouth and ears

whilst in the hedge-grove a song bird warbles.

Perhaps a blackbird or maybe a thrush.

I am afraid and the hyper-vigilance of the soldier returns.

I want my rifle, bayonet and combat gear.

"Jesus protect me." I whisper

I stand beside Ada Steiner - Auschwitz No. 67082,

she is from Haifa and the blue wound on her forearm

is clearly visible.For her this is no visit,

she is returning to the nightmares of her childhood.

Stanislaus also bears the blue wound,

they nod and greet each other.children who survived.

One a Jew and one a Christian.

"My dear Comrades!

I could not eliminate all lice

And Jews in one year.

But in the course of time,

And if you help me,

This end will be attained."

So said Hans Frank,

Nazi Governor General of Poland.

Auschwitz, 10 kilometres of death.

A true monument to German Efficiency!

The gravel crunches beneath my feet

as we walk between the electric wires

and enter the gate, the sign reads

"Work Will Set You Free"

.Another bloody paradox.

And all the while Stanislaus calls the numbers

eighty thousand Russians starved here.

Thirty thousand Poles; gassed mostly.

Two hundred and fifty thousand gypsies.

many thousands of political prisoners, mainly German.

and 2.5 million Jews.

"Zyklon B" at its very best.

January 27, 1945, and Liberation.

7000 starving inmates remain,

836,525 items of women's clothing,

348,820 items of men's clothing,

43,525 pairs of shoes, 460 artificial limbs,

7 tons of human hair.and so he continues.

I see the mountain of children's shoes,

and leave the warehouse as the tears begin to flow.

In the sunlight once more, I walk down the avenue

past the work-party gallows, towards the gas chamber

and the sole, remaining crematoria.

I hear the sound of gravel (and bone fragments) crunching underfoot,

and the warble of the songbirds nesting in the hedge-grove.

I will wash away the taste of death tonight

with a bottle of good Zubrowka vodka, and sing.

But I shall never forget this day,

or this place, or the murder that happened here. NEVER!

©Mike Subritzky

1998

Auschwitz