Philosophical Ramblings

After reading the emotive and compellingly moving memoir Night, by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and viewing Oprah’s interview of the author as they together walked through Auschwitz, I feel torn. Torn and horrified that the innate dignity of the person could be so brutally subject to such terrible cruelty- disrespected and completely stripped of all identity.

I am shocked and utterly appalled that such madness could ever have erupted in humanity’s conscience and history, and even more-so, I am terrified at merely seeing the imagery of the capacity of the dark side of humanity, which seems rife with such bitter anger and hatred. It is made all the more terrifying when I consider that the perpetrators of these atrocities were human, as too were the victims.

As I ponder upon all the discarded shoes and those who wore them, as I consider all the lives lost in this factory of death, I cannot help but contemplate how many opportunities were taken away from each person. How much happiness was drained from them and how the capacity to make a difference disappeared as each one fell to death.

Considering the statement, ‘Work makes you free’ atop the gates of hell, I ponder it to be exactly the opposite in the case of Auschwitz. There, work enslaved them. Unethical medical experiments and torture mutilated them and all dreams turned to ashes in the intense blaze of the crematorium. Whatever little hope that may have been left would probably have been like a tiny ration of bread for the entire massive camp or like a simple beam of light from heaven, piercing the immense darkness of hell.