Oswiecim: Words?
Saturday, October 29th, 2005Oswiecim is a small place about an hour and a half from Krakow, in the Southwest of Poland. It is quiet, a bit dusty, bathed in yellow leaves falling from trees. Rows of tour buses sit in a parking lot, people depart from them and walk solemnly towards a red brick building. Groups of school kids stand around outside the building, joking and laughing the way only school kids can. It is a clear day, but there is a bit of chill coming in on the wind. The Germans had a different name for Oswiecim during the Second World War. Auschwitz, they called it.