the camp

Watching the documentaries commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz brought the horror of what happened all those years ago into my consciousness. It was very easy in the abstract to describe the murder of 6 million people in terms like genocide and holocaust and to express horror, without grasping the true significance of what happened.

I saw a documentary on the camp, tonight, featuring interviews of the survivors; personal experiences, narrated by the people who lived through the horrors, told in their own words. You could see the hurt in their eyes, the painful memories of decades ago, that had never quite receded into the distance. After all these years, people still wept as they recalled the loved ones who were swallowed by the mists of one of the greatest evils man has ever visited on his kin.

I found myself asking, as I am sure they did then, and probably still do: ‘WHY’?

WHY?

It just did not make any sense. I would like someone to make sense of the whole tragedy for me, why it happened, and why it was allowed to actually happen. HOW? There were pictures of frightened, malnourished children, and mountains of bodies everywhere, and I was too horrified to speak.

And I still do not understand.

words that i wrote

it's a struggle i always face
this need to stay detached

when i win, only i know
victory is silently, sullenly taken

when i lose,you always know
without realising.
because that's when your phone rings
and you hear me say hello.


january 23, 2004