Jan Kasperczyk told us the family homes were torn down by the Germans to use the bricks and wood to build the barracks. The family returned to their land after the liberation, some relatives are still dairy farmers just miles from Auschwitz II-Birkenau's iconic entrance.
There is a Jewish museum in town, I recommend a visit (Oshpitzin.pl).
I have a degree in Information and Library Science, I follow you because of a passion for accurate observation and responsible journalism, I find this current American/GOP atmosphere of Trump and the money swirling around the acceptance of violence quite troubling. I look forward to your reporting that incorporates your history with what you see.
Thank you for this powerful piece. It hits me personally, as I too am a direct descendant of relatives who were murdered by the Nazis. My mother is a survivor. On a 2019 trip to Poland, I found out more about their fate; it was painful but felt important to know the facts, which have been muddled. There’s still so much I don’t know... safe travels.
It's a good thing to do, going to Auschwitz, but I'm not sure I could do it, or want to. My great grandmother was gassed the day she arrived in Sobibor and several more distant relatives (more than 100) were killed in various concentration camps. My grandfather escaped a train that was going to take him to Amsterdam where he would have been moved to another train to take him to Germany. He got in the front door, managed to open the back door and ran literally for his life. Fortunately he made it, otherwise I would not be alive today.
When I was a kid in Holland, I saw men with their concentration camp tattoos on their arms, and one told me that was what he showed the wealthy German tourists who arrived in the Netherlands on their pleasure boats in Arnhem in the 70s, and asked for directions.
There is something about knowing it was your own flesh and blood in those camps that makes me feel it would be worse going to one, where your own people were murdered. I remember going to a museum in Singapore which was based where there used to be a Japanese POW camp, and the photos were horrific, but I feel a personal connection makes it that much worse.
But, thinking about Ukraine and what is happening today, in contrast to the Russians, and most European people, saying "This must never happen again", it is important that we remember.
I recently round out that my extended family includes those of Jewish descent, yet this was something that neither my father, nor his brother and sisters, ever spoke about at all. Truth be told, he was anti-Semitic, so finding this out was quite a surprise. What was not surprising was finding out how many of them had died in Auschwitz and Birkenau. A few year ago I was in Krakow and visited the Oscar Schindler museum - it haunts me that perhaps some of the artifacts there might have been those of my family, and I just did not realize it. I find myself needing to know so much more so I wish you the best for your visit to Auschwitz, and may you find some answers that you are looking for.
I hope you find the personal answers you seek in Auschwitz. It’s life changing to be there. But all the people who lived and died through genocide are our family, even if not literally, and even if you don’t know their names.
Safe travels. In doing genealogy research I found my orphaned dad's mom and dad were from Brzezinka, the farmland outside Oświęcim (Auschwitz) where the Germans built the camps. We visited in 2017, met living relatives, one who just died this spring who as a young boy was displaced with his family in the spring of 1940 (https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/educational-session-and-contest-on-75th-anniversary-of-displacement-of-civilian-poles-related-with-expansion-of-kl-auschwitz,1197.html).
Jan Kasperczyk told us the family homes were torn down by the Germans to use the bricks and wood to build the barracks. The family returned to their land after the liberation, some relatives are still dairy farmers just miles from Auschwitz II-Birkenau's iconic entrance.
There is a Jewish museum in town, I recommend a visit (Oshpitzin.pl).
I have a degree in Information and Library Science, I follow you because of a passion for accurate observation and responsible journalism, I find this current American/GOP atmosphere of Trump and the money swirling around the acceptance of violence quite troubling. I look forward to your reporting that incorporates your history with what you see.
thank you thank you , genocide is everywhere, here in Mexico we have an ongoing silent war on women. Actually on everyone.
Thank you for this powerful piece. It hits me personally, as I too am a direct descendant of relatives who were murdered by the Nazis. My mother is a survivor. On a 2019 trip to Poland, I found out more about their fate; it was painful but felt important to know the facts, which have been muddled. There’s still so much I don’t know... safe travels.
It's a good thing to do, going to Auschwitz, but I'm not sure I could do it, or want to. My great grandmother was gassed the day she arrived in Sobibor and several more distant relatives (more than 100) were killed in various concentration camps. My grandfather escaped a train that was going to take him to Amsterdam where he would have been moved to another train to take him to Germany. He got in the front door, managed to open the back door and ran literally for his life. Fortunately he made it, otherwise I would not be alive today.
When I was a kid in Holland, I saw men with their concentration camp tattoos on their arms, and one told me that was what he showed the wealthy German tourists who arrived in the Netherlands on their pleasure boats in Arnhem in the 70s, and asked for directions.
There is something about knowing it was your own flesh and blood in those camps that makes me feel it would be worse going to one, where your own people were murdered. I remember going to a museum in Singapore which was based where there used to be a Japanese POW camp, and the photos were horrific, but I feel a personal connection makes it that much worse.
But, thinking about Ukraine and what is happening today, in contrast to the Russians, and most European people, saying "This must never happen again", it is important that we remember.
I recently round out that my extended family includes those of Jewish descent, yet this was something that neither my father, nor his brother and sisters, ever spoke about at all. Truth be told, he was anti-Semitic, so finding this out was quite a surprise. What was not surprising was finding out how many of them had died in Auschwitz and Birkenau. A few year ago I was in Krakow and visited the Oscar Schindler museum - it haunts me that perhaps some of the artifacts there might have been those of my family, and I just did not realize it. I find myself needing to know so much more so I wish you the best for your visit to Auschwitz, and may you find some answers that you are looking for.
I hope you find the personal answers you seek in Auschwitz. It’s life changing to be there. But all the people who lived and died through genocide are our family, even if not literally, and even if you don’t know their names.
Thank you for this wrenching piece. Holding you in the Light at Auschwitz.
A very powerful article. I wish you all the best in your travels to Auschwitz. Thank you for sharing this.