No matter how much I write in this blog, I will never be able to fully explain what we have felt today. Our morning routine was no different than any other beautiful day that we have spent here in Europe. A shower, some coffee and something small to eat. The minute we left our hotel, things were different. We were not talkative, we were not jubilant, we were focused. At 7:30 A.M and 100 yards from our hotel, we were faced with the metal sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei” or “Work will set you free”. We were the first two people in the camp on the 75th anniversary of Juda Leib Windman’s murder, and as we walked silently through the camp, we tried to adjust to the feeling we had, but the adjustment never came. We made our way through Auschwitz I, the original camp, building by building. Each building served a different purpose, some as offices, most as themed exhibition halls. A building dedicated to Polish Jews, one to French Jews, one to children and so forth. We saw the face of evil. Silently, we made our way through a gas chamber and crematorium where thousands upon thousands of lives were taken from people who did nothing but be themselves. We saw beds made of straw and bunk beds that were shared by up to 6 people. We saw medical rooms where phenol was shot straight into the heart of prisoners just to see what would happen. We walked past gallows where 12 Jews who helped several prisoners escape were hanged in front of the whole camp as an example. We saw the ground where everyday, twice a day, the entire camp was counted during roll call, sometimes lasting more than 12 hours. Building by building, we followed the stories of what happened in this land of evil. Armed with the knowledge of our family, we made our way to Block 11. Known as the prison block within the camp, resistance members, political influencers, prisoners with outside contact, or anybody that the Nazi’s felt was a threat to their plan was sent to Block 11 for a “trial” and sentence. These trials would last about 10 minutes before the sentence of death was delivered. Some prisoners were sent to the gas chamber, while others were sent to the Execution Wall, where we assume Luzer Israel Windman was executed mercilessly. The physical sensation inside the camp was terrible, as we felt like there was not enough oxygen to breath in no matter where you were. Once we left Auschwitz I we traveled three minutes down the road to Auschwitz II/Birkenau. The immense landscape, about 450 acres, was so desolate and baron that there was no mistaking what happened here. This place was used for nothing more than exterminating humans. Between the barracks, crematoriums, and fields used to burn bodies, we thought there was not a single shred of hope there. We walked the entire killing complex, and as we made our way to the farthest point in the camp, we found ourselves alone. With no warning or sound, a single feather fell directly in front of our path, but there was no bird in sight. Someone, or several people were watching over us as we passed through Auschwitz, and with that we knew our trip had been completed. Those before us had thanked us for bringing some type of closure to the atrocity that happened in Auschwitz. We finished our night with a traditional dinner in the Jewish Quarter of beautiful Krakow.
Before signing off for today, I want to take a moment to thank the man who has truly done the heavy lifting. My dad, Robert, has been working on this project for almost 5 years, collecting information from hundreds of sources, and sorting through paper after paper to trace our family’s history. He has run into dead ends, called people across the world, and spent late nights on the computer to find anything he can, but he never stopped working. I was lucky enough to be on this trip with him, but he deserves every ounce of credit for bringing this together. We traveled, step by step in our ancestors footsteps, because his attention to detail and attitude of never giving up. He is my role model and I hope he inspires others to connect to their roots. We all come from somewhere and it can be easy to forget those who walked before us. I pray he finds some closure in our trip, and I know my grandmother Jacqueline and great-grandmother Paulette are smiling down.