Hey guys.
So today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day we remember the six million Jews, out of the nine million Jews living in Europe at that time, murdered by Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler throughout the Second World War and until the Soviet Red flag flew over the Reichstag, in Berlin.
January 27 was the day decided by the United Nations General Assembly because on that day, in 1945, the most infamous of the concentration camps, Auschwitz, was finally liberated by the advancing Soviet Red army.
I urge everyone to pray for all those who suffered such hardships and pain and if you have Jewish friends, than pray with them.
Also, I based this on the concentration camp scene from Band of Brothers, a short TV series about the American 101st Airborne Division. If you type "band of brothers concentration camp" on Youtube, it will be the first one and let me tell you… Even still when I rewatch that scene, I feel tears coming down…
It was early March and the end of winter, the snow starting to melt from the spring sun as the weather turned nice. It was so peaceful that I almost forgot we were in a war. My name's Blu and I'm part of the 101st Airborne Division, the division, along with the rest of the Allied armies were charging through Germany, the German armies in full retreat as the mighty Allied sledgehammer gained mile after mile of our enemy's home country. However, while we were clearly victorious, it was at a cost…
Just today I have witnessed something I'll never forget, something that has clearly changed the way I view life. Lets start from the beginning.
The company I was in stopped by a small German village, German soldiers already gone as we came into the village unopposed. We settled down, the major letting everyone rest up before they would move on, however that was only for most of us as the major sent out a few patrols to make sure the Germans weren't around. I was sent as well, not that I minded, but I wish I stayed in the village.
I was with three of my other buddies, Alex, a Scarlet macaw, Rafael, a toucan, and Roberto, a Blue macaw like me. We were walking through the forest, just talking along ourselves when we came upon a clearing in the forest, what we saw was unbelievable as Roberto went running back to tell the major about what they had seen. After Roberto told the major, the major ordered everyone in the trucks again and the company went to where I, Alex, and Rafael were and what the major saw stunned him just as much.
It was a sort of prison camp, birds lining up on the barbed wire as they saw the company come in. Their faces were expressionless, devoid of any avian emotions as they wore black and white striped prison clothes. The major, a Blue macaw named Eduardo, got off his jeep, as the rest of the company got off the trucks and slowly walked towards the camp. Alongside Eduardo was Captain Felipe, a Scarlet.
As the two, with the company behind them, came to the front gate of the camp, they couldn't say anything and didn't know what to feel.
"Open the gate." I heard Eduardo tell a couple of soldiers, who then came up with a cutter tool and broke the lock that held the gates closed.
Once it was open the company came in, the inmates all looking at us as they began to cry silently, most of them touching us with their wings as a show of thanks I'm guessing. And those were only the ones who had the strength to come out to the wire…
"Eddie." I heard Captain Felipe call to Eduardo.
More birds were coming out, limping as they looked even weaker than the ones by the front gates, some had their rib cages sticking out, like they were walking skeletons with feathers and skin on them. Others were being helped by the other inmates walking up as they were too weak to move by themselves and yet others simply collapsed and fell, unable to go any further.
As for me, as I was walking deeper into the camp, with the inmates passing by me, I saw Alex face a man who was holding onto what seemed like a woman, maybe his wife. The inmate pleaded with Alex in a language he didn't understand, but Alex still did his best and took out his canteen to share his water.
As I was watching this, another inmate came to me and suddenly gave me a hug, crying loudly as he repeatedly killed my face. What could I do? I couldn't push him away, so I simply just hugged back and said that everything's going to be okay.
A bit later, Eduardo wanted to know more about the camp, as he got Rafael, who spoke German, to come and help translate as Felipe got an inmate that was healthy enough to talk. I also came besides my friend to find out more as well.
As the inmate began telling Rafael all he could, Rafael translated for Eduardo and Felipe.
"He says the Germans left this morning…" Rafael started telling the major and captain as the inmate continued. "They killed as many as they could before they marched away, not enough ammo, the Germans locked the gates and then headed south."
"Someone in town must have told the Germans we were coming." Felipe commented as that seemed like the reason.
"Can you ask him what kind of camp this is?" Eduardo asked Rafael. "Why they are here?" Rafael translating. To the inmate as the inmate answered.
"He says it's a work camp." Rafael told Eduardo.
"For criminals?" Eduardo asked, Rafael asking the inmate if he was there for that reason.
"No, doctors, musicians, tailors, clerks, farmers…" And then the inmate spoke the word that struck as Rafael the hardest. "Jews… Poles, Gypsies."
The inmate couldn't take it anymore as he walked away crying for someone as he repeatedly called out someone's name while Eduardo and Felipe stayed where they were to make decisions on what to do.
I myself went back to walking around the camp as with Roberto, I went to one of the long, poorly constructed, huts of the camp, dug into the ground as I opened the door. What I found shocked me beyond words, there were yet more inmates, all laying down in like chicken coops, all of them sick as they rolled around in pain and agony. I didn't know what to do, except tell Roberto to inform the Major Eduardo about this development. As Roberto left, I looked around again for a few seconds, I couldn't do anything as I left.
I moved on throughout the camp, seeing piles of the inmates that the Germans shot dead or have burned before running away. There was even nearby railroads cars filled with dead bodies, apparently to hide them from the Americans.
I eventually found Alex sitting by a pile of dead bodies of the inmates, just sitting there with his helmet off and rifle besides him, he wasn't looking at anything in particular.
"Alex?" I called out to him.
Alex turned his head slowly to me and his face, it was all pale and white, no expression on it as he didn't say anything, just looked at me. After a few seconds he turned his face to what he had been staring at.
So this was the grim reality of liberation sometimes, more death and heartbreak that wasn't from fighting and watching your buddies get shot. I witnessed liberation before, in France and the low countries and those times it was happy, the streets filled with birds giving me kisses and wine. Those were nice breaks from the hard fighting we were doing.
I have been through a lot since first parachuting down through the dark skies over Normandy, even about three months again, when I was freezing my a** off in the Ardennes, sitting in my foxhole and just waiting for German panzers and SS soldiers to come charging straight at me didn't even compare to this. I was imagining what these birds had to go through during that winter, at least I had adequate food and clothing, as well as a rifle and bullets to fight back with. Here, in this camp, it must have been a nightmare.
This was just a complete disregard for avian life, an atrocity that will forever be remembered in the history books. It was from that day that my life had completely changed as I viewed the world in a completely different life. I had been told that the reason why we were fighting this war was to protect democracy and freedom from Nazi tyranny and oppression, that was only partly true. This camp and the many others I have heard about in the following days, was the real reason why we were fighting.
And that's done.
I would go on, but it's a bit too much for me to be honest.
As I said in the beginning, six million Jews, in response to the so called, "Jewish problem and question", would simply be gone by the time the last shots of the Second World War in Europe were fired. However the fact that the other three million Jews in Europe managed to survive is a testimony to all those brave individuals, even some of them German. Helping the Jews escape the Nazis, even thought they were different, they still helped the Jews on moral and humane rights.
And because of all those actions, the Jewish religion and people are still alive to this day, where they continue to remember, as we should also do, their ancestors who perished in those years when evil was allowed to run free in Europe.