Where have you been?

From Kraków we made a day trip to the infamous WWII prison camp Oświęcim. Never heard the name Oświęcim? Neither had I. It is the name of the Polish town which under German control was know as and home to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. Poles have a somewhat justified paranoia that the world is out to get them and many of them believe there is a conspiracy to pin the ownership and operation of Auschwitz on them. This manifestation of paranoia is somewhat confusing to me because outside of a few nuts in Iran and America I have never heard anyone say the Polish people supported the Nazi invasion of their country let alone that they operated a death camp. I think it is a self-perpetuated paranoia (in this specific case) because not a single Pole I know referrers to the camp as Auschwitz, everyone calls it by the Polish name for which it was never known.

Anyway, lets put this to rest - Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp. It was located in German controlled Poland but operated by Germans. Towards the beginning of the war more Poles were victims of the camp than any other group of people. Much like the Dachau camp in Munich, the Auschwitz entrance gate has the welcoming mantra of "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "Work will set you free." Naturally we know this is a base lie, just like the idea that Poles ran Auschwitz.