2008 Woodie Awards
A personal journey back to Auschwitz
William Glucroft
Issue date: 11/17/05 Section: Opinion
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In April of 2004, I visited the Auschwitz camp complex during the March of the Living, an annual program that brings thousands of Jewish high school students from around the world to Poland and Israel. The actual March of the Living event takes place on the internationally-recognized Yom HaShoah-Holocaust Remembrance Day-and includes a walk from Auschwitz I to its more notorious counterpart, Auschwitz II-Birkenau. What was once a journey to death has been transformed into a march of life. To have many thousands of exuberant Jewish youths, full of potential, trample on Hitler's Final Solution was as life-affirming a scene as could ever be. The March of the Living, however, was an orchestrated way to bear witness. Now, not even two years later, three friends and I traveling through Poland had a day to quietly and independently explore the frightening capability of humanity. The emotional trek began in painfully ironic fashion: on a train. Not wanting to join one of the many bus tours, the only means to reach the camp was by rail. The age of both the train and the tracks was apparent, but this was obviously incomparable to the abhorrent conditions endured when the camp functioned. Unlike all those swallowed by Nazi megalomania, I ate a light breakfast while seated in a warm coach. I enjoyed freedom of movement, while they had been forced to stand in place. I had the choice to travel here; their fate was externally determined. I had a return ticket; theirs was one-way. My cost was financial (14 zlotys); their cost was mortal.
Roughly 70 minutes after departing Krakow, the train pulled into a sparse station. A light fog blanketed the tracks and the sun struggled to penetrate the biting air. The four witnesses walked through the quiet town and soon arrived at the camp.
Auschwitz I is now a museum. As such, the sturdily constructed, multistoried brick barracks that once housed Polish soldiers, then Soviet POWs and finally European Jews are now used for exhibit halls. A few have been converted to administrative offices and some are closed to the public entirely. As a result, Auschwitz today has the feel of a sterile portal to peer into a horrific past.
Roughly 70 minutes after departing Krakow, the train pulled into a sparse station. A light fog blanketed the tracks and the sun struggled to penetrate the biting air. The four witnesses walked through the quiet town and soon arrived at the camp.
Auschwitz I is now a museum. As such, the sturdily constructed, multistoried brick barracks that once housed Polish soldiers, then Soviet POWs and finally European Jews are now used for exhibit halls. A few have been converted to administrative offices and some are closed to the public entirely. As a result, Auschwitz today has the feel of a sterile portal to peer into a horrific past.
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