Visiting the Death Camp Auschwitz (1) - What We Can Learn from the Holocaust: Monk Takahiro Ueda's Circumnavigation of the World - Poland (4)
April 14.
Finally, today we head to Auschwitz, the biggest destination in Poland.
Fortunately, the weather was fine in the morning, and the freezing cold of the previous day seemed to have eased a bit.
It takes about 1.5 hours by bus from the bus terminal in Krakow.
Get off in front of the Auschwitz Museum.
The brick building over there is the entrance building.
From here on, it's the Auschwitz camp.
And this time, I decided to join the tour given by Tsuyoshi Nakatani, the only authorized Japanese-speaking guide in Auschwitz, as described in this article.
There were less than 20 participants.
I was surprised to see more Japanese people visiting here than I had expected.
When you leave the entrance building, you are already in the Auschwitz camp.
Mr. Nakatani immediately explained about this place.
The place name Auschwitz did not originally exist here.
The name of the Polish place called Ossifiantzim is called Auschwitz when read in the German way.
The idea of painting other cultures with German culture already appears at this point.
Then we turn right on this road, and the famous gate awaits us right there.
ARBEIT MACHT FREI
If you work, you're free."
Few people have actually worked here and survived, he said.
The hard work in so harsh an environment causes most people to run out of steam.
Or sent to the gas chamber...
Upon entering the building, one can see that most of the buildings used at the time still remain.
Today, this group of buildings is used as a museum, displaying photographs, artifacts, and materials from that period.
There was too much information here.
And each of Ms. Nakatani's words seemed to pose a question to us.
How could this have happened?"
Why couldn't we have prevented it?"
You certainly have something that could do that to you."
We could not help but be absolutely amazed at what Mr. Nakatani said while looking at the exhibition in front of us.
The reason why I have told you so little about what exactly was on display and what was happening here is because I wanted to convey the fact that there was so much going on here that I could not tell you.
I cannot tell you everything here.
However, I would like to talk about one of the exhibits that left a particularly strong impression on me.
This is a written list of certain things.
I wonder if you all know what the list is.
It is difficult to see, so it may be easier to understand if you look at this photo.
Yes. This is a list of what the Nazis seized from the Jews.
The previous photo shows the list actually made by the Nazis. The next photo shows the list created by the Soviet Union after the camps were liberated.
The Soviet list is easier to see, so I would like to look there.
The top one is "Men's clothing 246,820 pieces.
The second is "Ladies' clothing 836225 pieces."
In other words, the Nazis had so carefully recorded that they had seized "men's clothing, 246,820 pieces" and "women's clothing, 836,225 pieces.
But imagine this.
What the numbers on the form mean...
Men's shoes without soles are also marked for 38,000 people.
On the written word, there is no sense of color, shape, or anything else.
It's just letters. It's a symbol.
But I want you to see this.
Shoes left behind in Auschwitz.
These were seized and discarded when they were no longer for sale.
It was discovered and is now on display before our eyes.
The power of the written word is frightening.
The letters take everything out.
The life that each one of us has lived, the thoughts and history behind it.
Men's shoes without sole 38,000 pairs
That's it.
From there, it is as if no individual life emerges.
The fact that the Nazis were able to kill such a large number of people was very much due to this power of letters, numbers, and symbols.
Each Nazi soldier is a human being.
Continuing to kill flesh and blood without hesitation, no matter how Nazi it may be, places a tremendous psychological burden on the soldiers in the field.
The power of words was used as a mitigating factor.
It is the kindness and concern shown by the Nazi high command for the Nazi soldiers in the field.
Is there such a terrible kindness and concern?
The kindness of relieving a murderer of his burden ...
I shuddered at the thought.
And the power of words, of letters...
be unbroken
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