we remember

“During those times it was human to be inhuman.” -Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor

I am of no great scribe to be writing about the horrors brought forth by the Auschwitz Camp. Writing about this requires one an immeasurable amount of knowledge about the death factory. However, the immensity of the inhumanity and the simplicity of death inside the walls of the camp have stirred anger in me to shout about the horrors of the holocaust.

Elie Wiesel—a Nobel Prize winner, a prolific writer, and a holocaust survivor—agreed to visit the terror camp with Oprah Winfrey for a special episode of the latter’s show. With the cameras rolling, they toured the thousand acres of land considered to be the biggest cemetery in recorded history. It was there where Nazi Germany had perfected their experiment to purify the Arian race. More than a million of European Jews had perished. Women and children, and other men deemed not fit to toil under the Nazi ruling were brought inside the camp’s gas chambers. As the SS Men sealed off the death chambers, they would drop cans filled with poisonous gas, Zyclon B (used in insecticides). Slowly, the gas filled the lungs of the poor, unfortunate souls inside each chamber. As the doors of the chambers opened, one would see mothers hugging their children, grandfathers and grandmothers in fetal curl…all of them lifeless. Bodies would then be transported to their final pit stop—the crematorium. Bodies upon bodies were thrown inside the oven. Lives, dreams, aspirations, and hopes were then turned into ashes.

As the camera captures the immensity of the place, no one and nothing could grasp the silent cries of the soul seemingly wandering in the Auschwitz camp—the infamous symbol of human’s inhumanity.

Watching that episode is just a reminder that man’s selfish desires to advance himself at the expense of others are still rampant today in the civilized world. In the Philippines alone, the polarity of social strata is becoming more evident. As the one percent elite continue to savor the luxurious life lane, more and more Filipinos are slowly drowning in the quicksand their own government has created for them. The spiral of poverty keeps on thriving in the lives of the people—eating their morale, values, and principles.

I thank Oprah, Mr. Wiesel, and those people behind the (historical) production for bringing me to the death camp. It sure has ignited a sense of humanity in me. It sure has angered me to do something on behalf of my brethren. The sights, the sounds, and ultimately, the experience I’ve had watching the show will NEVER be forgotten.

“To those who survived, we remember. For the future generation, we shall never forget.”