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9 Nov 2026

 

Memories Of Auschwitz

In the summer of 1989, I was invited by the Polish Academy of Sciences to give a paper at a conference. Presenters met at a noble, aged castle in Warsaw. I was housed at a nearby motel on the Vistula River. After our sessions ended, I spent several days walking about the city.

In 1989, as you recall, Poland was under Communist rule, as it had been since 1945, so I was warned (confidentially) to be careful what I said and did. Fortunately, as a guest of the State, I had no trouble with authorities …. although Army and police were everywhere watching and stopping people without cause. Many of these militant enforcers were clearly still in their teens.

Socialism Without Glitter

My time in Communist/Socialist Poland brought home to me - in stark, depressing terms - what happens when people assume or are persuaded that their leaders know what’s best for them.

Socialism grants power to a few persons rather than to many, as Democracy does. In Poland as elsewhere, Socialism’s elevation of those in power eclipsed citizens’ rights … rights which we Americans take for granted, e.g., freedom of thought (via voting) and religion, and the moral gravity of human law.

I witnessed examples of Socialism’s harrowing outcomes:

• Abandoned automobiles lined every street, left by drivers when the autos simply stopped running. Replacement parts were not available; no mechanics could be called.


• Broken windows in many buildings were covered with cardboard; no replacement glass was available.


• At night, darkness was widespread; no light bulbs were available for homes or street lights.


• Buildings under construction remained half-finished for months. Unused piles of materials cluttered streets; builders constantly ran out of materials needed to finish the job.


• An aura of hopelessness hung heavily over row-upon-row of unemployed men sitting silently on curbs, feet in the gutters, wreathes of noxious smoke hanging in the air as they smoked unfiltered Russian cigarettes.

At the same time, Communist officials drove brand new cars and dined in private clubs.

Krakow

To see more of Poland, I later flew from Warsaw to Krakow and stayed at an elegant old hotel which was closed to Polish citizens. I was the only American in the place; the rest of the hotel had been taken over by the Communist Party for a state visit by the French Prime Minister and his extensive entourage.

In the hotel dining room, a dinner of a whole chicken, potatoes, beets and cabbage salad, real butter, freshly baked bread, a huge dessert and coffee cost about $1.25; such was the weakness of the Polish zloty. My hotel bill in Krakow for five days was $30.

In Krakow I explored the Old Quarter of the city which dates back 2000 years. Very few private autos were on the streets, but in the downtown area, smog from busses and Army trucks was so heavy that it swirled like fog 'round one's ankles and piled in layers around one’s legs. Legislation to protect citizens from ill effects of smog was, of course, ignored by government.

Auschwitz

From Krakow, I traveled to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, one of many such “death camps” built by the Nazis expressly to murder especially Jewish persons. (For clarity’s sake, the word “Nazi” is the shortened form of the German word Nationalsozialist, which means “National Socialist,” Hitler’s political party.

Over the main gate of Auschwitz, I saw the sinister, ironic motto which hung over entrances to all Nazi death camps: "Arbeit macht frei," which means “Work will make you free.”

I wandered the paths of Auschwitz alone, in silence. Silence seemed the only way to honor the grief and anguish which pervades the place. I would often have to walk around small groups of Jewish families whose members had been killed here. Often, I would merely stand still in helpless awe.

At one point, I came upon a family huddled around an elderly woman who had collapsed to the ground. Her grief was so deep that no sound could escape her frail body. She heaved in anguish with pathetic spasms. A family member then whispered to me that she was again mourning her children, Nazi victims.

To this day, I have never seen such profound sorrow.

Mengele

At Auschwitz, “Dr.” Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, performed his grisly experiments. Mengele was chief of "medicine" at Auschwitz. Mengele's research facilities were stark and horrible. On the walls were pictures of prisoners, some as young as 6 years old, clad in prison stripes. Beneath each child's picture was a caption summarizing their crime: Enemy of the State. Many were, of course, Jewish.

  Mengele experimented on young children, specifically twins. He also supervised a series of unbelievable experiments on Jewish prisoners; some victims lingered for months. I saw Mengele’s hand-written records (the Nazis were much given to detailing their atrocities) and photos of Mengele’s work, the horror of which I cannot adequately put into words.

In addition, Mengele supervised torture rooms in the basement. The wooden doors of these cells were 5-6 inches thick. Every cell door was clawed out by the fingernails of tormented people seeking escape. One particularly horrible practice was to jam 7-6 people (some of them upside down) into a cell no wider than your desk and as high as a fridge, and left there until they all died.

Fr. Kolbe

I also saw the cell of Fr. Maximilian Kolbe. In February 1941, Fr. Kolbe, a Catholic priest of known antipathy to Naziism, was arrested by the Gestapo in Warsaw. In May, the Germans transferred Kolbe to Auschwitz. There, he immediately ministered to his fellow prisoners.

Fr. Kolbe was subjected to violent harassment, including beatings and lashings. On one occasion, sympathetic inmates smuggled the wounded Kolbe to the prison hospital.

At the end of July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. In reprisal, Deputy Camp Commander Karl Fritzsch chose ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker. When selected, Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out, "My wife! My children!" At that moment, Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

A janitor later testified that Fr. Kolbe led prisoners in prayer from his cell. After the group had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others still lived. To hasten death, guards gave the remaining four prisoners lethal injections of carbolic acid. Kolbe raised his left arm and calmly waited for it.

Fr. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941 and was cremated the next day, August 15, which is the Catholic feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of Christ.

There is much to remember with deep humility about the evil of which we humans are capable. I have never forgotten the pillars to which the Nazi jailers tied three prisoners at one time. The first prisoner was shot in the head with the intention of the bullet killing all three, thus saving ammunition. It is not possible to forget the gas chambers and crematoria, the hatred and indifference which prompted all this … and that haunting sign: “Arbeit macht frei…”

Socialism’s Legacy

On my last day, a Politburo member arranged (for a slight "fee" in highly valued dollars) to have his English-speaking nephew drive me to the airport … in a new Toyota. The nephew told me about his uncle's monied influence with other government officials and East Bloc "importers" (i.e., smugglers). Imports from Western countries were officially banned, but Politburo officials developed a lively black market, which revealed the corruptibility of nearly anyone - even "dedicated" ideologues.

As I was checking out of my Warsaw hotel for the last time, the desk clerk - a young woman of perhaps twenty-five - said to me: "You are the American, aren't you?" I said I was. She responded, "America must be a wonderful place." I said, "Yes, it is. What makes you say so?" She leaned toward me, looked furtively across the lobby at the KGB observer in leather overcoat, then whispered to me, "In America, you do not have to be afraid..."

Finally . . .

Politics is (or should be) our human endeavor to guarantee each and every individual person the freedoms of God’s children. These freedoms are given to each of us by God; we are born with them, just as we are born with limits to what individuals and governments are allowed to do.

Our individuality is sacred, subject to the laws and limits imposed by Nature and Nature’s God, as our Declaration of Independence says.

In Poland, I saw the practical results of National Socialism (Naziism) and Communism’s atheistic Socialism. Happily, I could leave both behind me and come home to America … and to the endless blessings we here enjoy. …… But the memories of that colossal, extensive evil linger long and deeply.

Thus, I am concerned that Socialist governance seems to appeal to the uninformed minds and uncritical hearts of some American voters who are persuaded - or duped - by promises of up-and-coming politicians whose goals center on their own power and aggrandizement.

Human dignity is real . . . but our fallibility as human beings is also very real. And, the facts of History are undeniable.