Day 7: A Day of Extreme Contrasts (Sat, Sept 1)
The instant I walked under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate, my eyes filled with tears as I could feel the screams emanating from every brick. At the scene of so much evil the rush of emotions is overwhelming. This is ground made sacred by the blood of martyrs, yet it is evil ground. Auschwitz is a conflict of everything known to humanity. It hit me to my very core.
Probably the most well known of the Nazis concentration camps, Auschwitz is the scene of horendous acts that produced saints.
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| Building where St Maximilian lived |
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| Building in which St Maximilian was sent to starve to death |
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| St Maximilian's window |
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| Maximiliam Kolbe's name can be seen- #16670 |
The most famous Catholic saint to walk through these gates was Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who gave up his life so another could live. After surviving two weeks of dehydration and starvation when he volunteered to die in place of a stranger, the Nazis injected his heart with phenol. His death is listed as "heart failure."
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| The "Black Wall" where prisoners were executed |
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| Typical bunkhouse |
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| Everything that was useful was salvaged |
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| Thousands of childrens shoes |
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| Gas chamber |
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| Crematorium |
The atrocities inflicted by the Nazis were unimaginable. It's hard to wrap your mind around it. How can humans do such things to fellow humans?
We continued on to Birkenau, a neighboring camp. The immense size of this camp is mind boggling. Birkenau was razed so what we saw were reconstructions. Prisoners were jammed in the bunkhouses sleeping 5-8 to a bunk. Use of the latrines were limited to 30 seconds because of the sheer volume of humanity. To here was no privacy.
The photos of the trains entering right into a concentration camp gate were taken at Birkenau.
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| Shrine of Divine Mercy |
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| Jesus I Trust in You |
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| By pure chance our Mass was held in the chapel donated by Slovakia |
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| Window of the room where St Faustina died at 33 |
We continued on to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Lagiewnlki. Through the mediation of St Faustina, Christ passed on the message of Divine Mercy to the world. This is the convent where St Faustina lived and died, and where she passed on Christ's message of Divine Mercy. As our guide Olga said, everyone knows that Jesus speaks Polish because that's what he spoke to St Faustina!
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| "Be Not Afraid" Center |
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| Cassock worn during the assassination attempt |
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| Original grave stone of St John Paul II |
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| First class relic of John Paul's blood |
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| St John Paul credits Our Lady of Fatima for saving his life |
Right next to the Shrine of Divine Mercy is the "Be Not Afraid" Center of St John Paul II. This beautiful church contains the cassock worn by John Paul during his assassination attempt. A side chapel contains his original tombstone with a relic of his blood.
That evening we were treated to a visit by my nephew Henry, who seemed to be following us around Poland. He was able to join us for dinner and a good visit. Henry is backpacking his way around Europe. As Stacy said, three of us seemed to get a touch of food poisoning. It must have been the vegetables because Gene was fine.
