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A deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. Genesis 15:12 What is it about Auschwitz, more than any other place of genocide, that so chills the soul that no voice can stand against it? Why is it Auschwitz that causes Buddhist monks to walk the tracks into the gates in memory of untold suffering or Cathoic nuns to feel the need to offer prayers daily? Why is the Jewish soul so tied to Auschwitz, more than to the myriad of pogroms and slaughters? Auschwitz, that causes pilgrimages by persons of all faiths to be made to this darkest place on earth., Is it redeemed by turning its grounds and barbed wire into a museum because relics of suffering are easier to go near than suffering itself? The Suffering and Deaths at Auschwitz In Auschwitz, over 2 million people many elderly, women and children died cruel deaths in quintessential injustice. Death in many faces: disease, starvation, shootings, gassings, tortures, medical cruelty, bludgeonings , hypothermia and others became daily and expected occurences. Calvin Miller once noted that we "are horrified at a drop of blood, but we whistle past a slaughterhouse. It was a Jewish nation in Auschwitz that was made a flock of slaughter. It was also, the weakest, the unusual, the mentally retarded and abnormal, the elderly, the vunerable, the child, the twin, the mother and father, the political dissident and the 'religious' which became so offensive to the Third Reich. Auschwitz, a horrible dream that really happened. Under the dark authority of Hess , all life for the captive became a nightmare without boundaries. It so astounded it victims and witnesses that they only rarely fought back. A whole nation of persons was numbed into complacency to unimaginable cruelty. They resigned not to fight an ill wind. Resisting brought more evil, more retaliation and more death, not only against the resistor but against innocents as well. Morality was a new and foreign country where all the conventional rules of civilization were erased. Right and wrong were often indecipherable. We will in this section on Auschwitz, explore in more detail than in the other camps, the lived experience, and the conventions of memory in the cruelest site on earth. We will examine aspects of the human heart and condition which led to and perpetrated this most horrible, but real drama. The Camp at Osweiczm Auschwitz-Birkenau was located in the small town of Osweicizm, which at one time was a haven for Polish Jews. There were several synagogues there before the war. Recently, funds have been collected to renovate one of the synagogues, an endeavor felt necessary for the thousands of Jews in pilgrimage to this austere place. Entering Auschwitz were twisting train tracks: it was here that millions were let off of RSHA transports, counted as though they were cattle, separated and incarcerated or put to death. As soon as the trains were emptied, the "selections" were made. Women who were pregnant or with young children, especially towards the end, were often the first sent to the "showers to a certain death. The elderly were also an easy selection for extermination. Young men and women capable of work were interred in barracks. All belongings were confiscated here. Persons departing trains were told that their belongings would be shipped to "Canada" for storage during the war. This meant that all items were to be sorted, some used for the war effort and others used for the personal enrichment of the Nazi officers and personnel overseeing the effort. Women and Men were separated into different camps, including husbands and wives in one final effort to prevent the "profiligration" of the Jewish Race, or in other words to prevent Jewish citizens from having children and thereby putting an end to the Jewish race in Europe. Deboardings and the "Angel of Death" Often attending the de-boardings, was Josef Mengele, nicknamed "The Angel of Death". He would stand in an elevated location and wave some to life and some to death. He also ordered the separation of twins, dwarves, and other genetic interests to cruel and bizarre medical experiments: These were housed in another location. (See Eugenics) Other adults were also transcripted to bizarre Nazi experiments, subjecting them to burns, freezings, starvations, and sterilizations and worse. It is said that Mengele would offer candy to his younger victims take them hand in hand and walk them to the experiments and/or death that followed. Auschwitz: other Links under development