Auschwitz

Auschwitz is sad. There is really no other way to describe it. The second a person sets a foot onto the camp, it is like his or her body has walked into a bubble of sadness. Around you see hundreds and hundreds of people, but somehow the area is quiet — minus a few claps of hard-soled shoes and the occasional, “Oh, my God!” It is impossible for a person to smile cordially, let alone with joy.

Three quarters of a century later, there is still no joy inside of Auschwitz. Perhaps it is lost amidst the remnants of torture chambers and killing machines, but more likely it was taken with tattered shoes and clothing as a helpless million walked into hell on earth.

Joy will never come back to Auschwitz. It can’t. The best a person can do now is to try to learn from the painful experiences of others in the hope that our sometimes-evil world retains as much joy as possible. If not, we may as well give up on hope too.