A haunting trip to Auschwitz; Is a supermarket low?

My visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in southern Poland on a bitter-cold and snowy Sunday was compelling, disturbing and, in a very real sense, life-changing. Touring the tiny barracks where so many Jewish prisoners were forced to live and die in cramped and horrifying conditions, and seeing the electric fences, piles of women's hair that had been cut off, possessions such as men's, women's and children's shoes, the remains of the gas chamber at nearby Birkenau, the crematorium, and so, so much more made me realize how absurd complaints are about long lines, rude people, cold coffee and all the other insignificant things we whine about. The tour gives you such an unforgettable feeling of what happened there and how the Nazis forced prisoners to live -- and eventually die -- in conditions that are really hard to fathom. How any group of people could make others endure hardship and suffering of this scope is beyond my understanding.
All of this may sound trite, cliched and perhaps self-serving, but honest to God, I mean every word of it. Every day since the tour, I've reflected on the events from 1940 to 1945, when Russian soldiers ultimately discovered the camp and began to reveal what happened there.
Let me give you a quick recap of my tour with my friend Jemma. Her husband Marc graciously stayed behind to take care of their two young children, Molly Rose and Lacy May (more about this family later).
Our guide Paulina, who did an incredible job, took us through the entrance of Auschwitz where a sign that greeted the prisoners roughly translates to WORK MEANS FREEDOM. We toured various barracks near the entrance and were told the history and background of Auschwitz. A former town was turned into a concentration camp. I believe captured Russians were the first inhabitants and victims. Gypsies and other groups of people were brought there and the Final Solution -- the planned annihilation of the Jewish race -- began to unfold. Auschwitz was centrally located for the Nazi's plan to round up and kill Jews. Paulina told us how Jews who knew their fate tried to kill themselves by leaping into the electric fence. Almost all were shot by guards before they made it.
We toured the site where Josef Mengele conducted medical experiments on Jewish prisoners. We went to basement cells where prisoners died from suffocation, sickness or starvation. We saw so much that I can't get some of the images out of my mind.
The tour finished with a very short bus ride to nearby Birkenau, which housed the gas chambers where most of the Jews died -- an estimated 1 million people. About 100,000 to 200,000 others died at Auschwitz.
I chatted with tour guide Paulina afterwards, and she told me that she had nightmares regularly when she first started her job at Auschwitz. As noted earlier, Paulina did a fantastic job dealing with a grim and depressing chapter in world history. Thank you, Paulina.

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I quit my job at a language center in Kety, Poland, after working there three weeks. I worked four years and nine months at VMG in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, and a total of 14 months on two separate occasions at Extreme English in Arequipa, Peru, with former boss and now friend Chris Larsen. I consider working at VMG and Extreme as positive experiences in my life. Both language centers treated me with the respect that an old White Monkey deserves. I had a big story about my exit from the language center in Kety, but I'll just say this: Miserable people lead miserable lives. That said, I really enjoyed the students here, and given the opportunity, I think their English could be excellent in a short period of time. Too bad they are taught such important phrases like: Is a supermarket high? No, a supermarket isn't high, but it's low. You can't make this stuff up.

Kety was extremely quiet (most shops close early on Saturdays and aren't open Sundays), but it's fairly nice. So are most of the people. The weather is rough -- I saw the sun for six hours in three weeks.

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Marc and Jemma (and their children) lived on the first floor of the house we sort of shared. They were the best neighbors and friends I could have possibly asked for in Poland.
 Jemma is a wonderful woman (and teacher) and Marc is a budding teacher, administrator, bicycle repairman, doorman, car attendant, and IT. He's a wonderful person as well. These folks were generous, kind and wonderful to the White Monkey. And shockingly, they have all these qualities and they're from Great Britain.

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I will be with my beautiful and kind wife Phuong and wonderful daughter Joanna very soon after a trip to Prague. Thank God I didn't bring my wife and daughter here. I will be so happy to see them both. And I'll do a little private teaching with my favorite students when I get back to Vietnam.