Bureaucracy - addendum

On the drive back to Toruń yesterday, Jan asked dad if he knew anything about the condition of the labour camp at Bocień. Dad related a passage from the autobiography of the survivor that led us here ... one day Red Cross inspectors visited the camp to see what conditions were like. A few of the prisoners complained that there was no infirmary, no medical care of any sort, and there were a number of sick people. After the inspectors left, the camp commander made the prisoners line up in the yard and said he'd heard there were some sick people who needed medical care. He asked them to identify themselves, as he would arrange for a doctor for them. A few prisoners stepped forward. He looked them over, then declared that HE was the doctor, he would fix them. With his rod he beat them to within an inch of their lives; as the beaten, broken women lay in a heap on the ground, the commander asked the rest of the prisoners: now, does anyone else need to see a doctor?

Dad went on to say that he could understand that the Nazis were losing the war and decided to use of prisoners as a labour source. In spite of the inhumanity of enslaving innocent civilians, on some level there is some twisted internal logic in it. But the sheer cruelty and sadism of the commander is unfathomable. What could possibly drive people to treat other human beings with such cruelty is beyond comprehension.

A bit later, Jan asked dad if he knew how his mother had died. Again, dad referred to the autobiography ... the writer described one day seeing Anna. She was weak, emaciated, thoroughly broken, and told her that she didn't have the strength to continue. After the next day's pile of corpses was carted away, she never saw Anna again.

This morning we travel by train to Krakow. We leave the land where three of my ancestors lie, and go to where their journey into hell began.

As we prepare to leave this part of Poland, we are left with a profound sense of gratitude to Jan for putting us in touch with people who have given us an insight far beyond our expectations when we began planning this personal pilgrimage. We have been so warmly and compassionately received, and he has helped orchestrate much of it.