Ruins of death chamber #2 of Auschwitz II, the spot where more human beings were murdered than any other place in history

Last month Asher and I had the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Although we have done extensive personal study on the Holocaust including several visits to Yad Vashem in Israel, to actually set foot in Auschwitz is an overwhelming experience.

An attempt has been made to leave the camp intact, as is, that there will be no confusion between reality and man-made monuments. Thus the visitor - to whatever extent possible - is able to make an association with the camp and imagine himself there.

In several displays, piles of genuine personal items have been collected and stand as a memorial to the thousands who met their fate here, simple individuals concerned with daily necessities - shoes, suitcases with names marked clearly, pots and pans. A collection of talitot (Jewish prayer shawls) alludes to the number of practicing Jews at Auschwitz, and in a more gruesome display sits a ceiling high pile of human hair. Rows of wooden bunk beds line the walls of a single barracks where one wonders at the numbers that were crammed into these rooms, and the "bathroom," where inhuman sanitation was responsible for thousands of deaths, remains untouched.

Barbed wire fence surrounding barracks at Auschwitz I

However nothing sent chills up my spine like the "showers." Beams of light shine through small holes in the ceiling where Zyklon B poison was dropped and the notorious ovens stand in place, tools for unfathomable evil. I found myself physically sickened in this room, unable to stay for more than a few minutes.

Outside, at the end of the massive Birkenau (Auschwitz II) grounds lie the ruins of the burnt down crematoriums. It is said that more human beings died at this spot than any other location in history.

I left Auschwitz with a sense of horror at the atrocities performed here, while at the same time a sense of reverence to the million plus martyrs who died in its midst.

Czech Republic and Poland

In addition to Auschwitz we spent a few days ministering in the Czech Republic and Poland. Both countries are similar in that they once hosted thriving Jewish communities - among the largest in Europe - but in both countries their Jewish population was almost completely obliterated in World War II.

In spite of this tragic history, we witnessed a growing movement among believers to grasp the Jewish roots of the gospel and seek a connection with modern day Israel. In addition, some Polish believers informed us that there is a movement within the general population to start dealing with the "ghosts of the past" - the Jewish neighbors who no longer exist - and revive Jewish culture within the country. http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=446

There are roots of revival in the Czech and Polish nations that go back to the Moravian revivals. We stand together with our spiritual brothers and sisters to release revival and restoration for the true remnant Church in both Poland and the Czech Republic.