On the way to Auschwitz, the tour guide showed a video on the bus. Just watching the video, I started to tear. I really thank God that I’m a history student because I feel strongly for this sentence that was quoted in the video – The living must speak for the dead. There wasn’t a lot of emotions within me when touring the actual place but probably it was because the whole atmosphere was so sombre and serious. The only time my eyes got a little wet was when the guide emphasized that children were gassed immediately upon arrival because they were of no use at all.
To me, this whole genocide ideology is so uncanny and grotesque that it eludes me how can any human being think of such a systematic killing method. Auschwitz is like a killing machine upscaled to kill humans. The more I think and see the site, the more I feel it’s like an abattoir – an abattoir for humans or in the eyes of the Nazis, it was not humans that they saw, it was a problem, an infestation, a collection of pest and pests they were hence the chemical used to kill them was in that time an active ingredient in pesticides.
No matter how much I write, I can never express this multitude of feelings that I have from this experience but nonetheless, I really am thankful that I have the chance to visit this place. I do encourage everyone to mark this place as a ‘must-visit-once’ in your travels, because after Auschwitz, you will never look at life the same way again.
twin, lovely ! probably what i felt during chiangmai cip trip was not as strong as urs, bu definitely can reasonate with ur thought.s
Comment by Hui Yi — April 11, 2009 @ 11:03 pm