The writer is editorial consultant at The Express Tribune, news junkie, bibliophile, cat lover and occasional cyclist
Along with the holiday came packages, trips here and there to places of interest and our ever-helpful tour guide appeared one evening and announced that there was to be a trip to Auschwitz the next morning, warning that it was a long bus ride and thus an early start. There were about 40 in the group and half of us signed up. Little did we know what we were in for.
Auschwitz. A word from the history books synonymous with horror and the Holocaust. A place where the Nazis had killed 1.1 million people in an industrialised process over several years. Mostly they were European Jews, but gay men and women, gypsies and the mentally handicapped were all brought here to have their bodies harvested for work if they were able, and their hair, spectacles, gold teeth fillings and body fat to be rendered into soap if they were not fit to work. They were killed in bunkers by having a gas called Zyklon B pumped in, and then incinerated in vast crematoria and their ashes finally disposed of in a large pond to the north of the camp.
For those interested, go to Google Earth and search for ‘Oswiecim’ the town nearest to the camp and there it is, neat lines of elongated rectangles that were the accommodation, the administrative blocks, The Ramp where the trains bearing those soon to die arrived and were sorted. All very orderly.
Nothing prepares you for the feeling of cold and inner terror that comes over you as you walk through the main gates of the camp. The guides, mostly local women, said that some people just fell over and got no further than the gate. We walked in silence mostly, through rooms that were thick with death and its imagery. We stood at the top of the ramp that led down into the gas chamber. There was a Jewish man and his young son in our party. The group was hesitant, the visit to the gas chamber was ‘optional’ said the guide. You do not have to go in if you do not want to. The Jewish man turned to us and said, “Let me go first.” And holding his son’s hand he walked into a place where the very air screamed.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians on January 27, 1945, 70 years ago this week. It came into being because it was state policy to exterminate — literally completely wipe out — certain groups of people who were defined by law. They were to be wiped from the face of the earth, all trace of them removed. Institutionalised mass murder given the grace of legality. There were similar camps with the same purpose built in Germany and other parts of Poland. There was little or no protest among the population of either Germany or Poland, nobody raised a voice, few raised a questioning hand, and the butchery went on until the end of the war when the vast scale of it was revealed.
The bedrock of hatred and intolerance that underpinned places like Auschwitz has not gone away and it is alive and well in Pakistan. Although there is no state policy of extermination of a minority, there is a constitutional amendment that discriminates against a minority group. A minority group that is regularly targeted by terrorists who are rarely caught or prosecuted and whose actions have the unspoken support of many, perhaps millions. Many of that group have fled abroad, as have members of other minority groups including members of my own family.
There are no gas chambers in Pakistan, no crematoria where living people may be thrust into the fire. But there are brick kilns. Most Germans looked the other way as the Holocaust burned around them, closed their ears to the screams. Do you hear any screams, Dear Reader? No? Well I do.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2015.
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@Toba Alu: I take your point Sir, but this is what we call the "freedom of expression" and the opinion of one individual. There are number of paid propagandists on this site but Sexton Blake is not one of them. He expresses his own opinion based on his experience which we may or may not agree with.
Rex Minor
@Pakistani: "I want to live in Qaid e Azam’s Pakistans." .... you are living in Qaid's Pakistan. A nation born out of hatred and direct action which resulted in thousands massacred and millions displaced and sowed the seed of perpetual hatred between two countries. Unfortunately for you, your successive leaders were busy and are still busy to try to break India and bleed india by hundred cuts. They are still busy with Kashmir while ignoring thousands Shias killed by your local sunni terrorists and the minorities disappearing. As the author pointed out you have developed habit to look the other way and blame India for everything without any substance or evidence but just convictions coming from your deep rooted hatred. When a nation carries so much hate, another Nazi rises.
Pakistanis do better then that. They not just close their ears, they blame it all on India. Easy healing.
@Rex Minor: You defend Sexton Blake despite his factual errors. Debating techniques such as conflating different subjects/issues, jumping the issue, change the subject, floating half truths, quoting unscientific sources, adding information totally irrelevant to the issue at hand, etc. do not fall in the realm of science, logic and reason.
Just read our exchange of views and look up the facts for yourself
http://tribune.com.pk/story/828309/last-survivors-recall-auschwitz-ask-if-lessons-learned/#comment-2472818
@Toticalling:
I looked at 1950 numbers but didn't included Bangladesh factor! Sorry.
The huge difference drops, but it still conveys the same story.
Pakistan*: 1950 Hindus 2% and now 1.6%
Bangldesh: 1950 Hindus 25% and now 9%
India: 1950 Muslims 8.4% and now 14.2%
Couldn't find numbers for Sikh population.@Toticalling:
These numbers are after independence. For example:
Muslim population in India was 8.4% in 1950 and now it is 14.2%.
The minority treatment in Pakistan resulted in mass migration, and direct/indirect conversion resulting in such a huge drop in minority numbers.
@Xoxo: I condemn the persecution of ninorities and women in Pakistan. But we should not mix facts with fiction. In 1947, there were killings and many non Muslims left for India; same happend in India. So comparing the % of 1947 with now is wrong. You should compare it with 1950. As you know the number of Muslims in East Punjab also reduced after partition. In fact the of Mslims in Punjab is minimum. Germany killed over 6 mi9llion Jews and other 'darker' skinned people. It was not a group who did that, but the government policy. That has not happened anywhere else. So if there are demostrations many get worried. In fact many Germans are also afraid of right wing people. Pakistan should make laws to give equal rights to hindus and Christians. That is my thinking. And I do not deny that this is not happening.
@Xoxo: well said; all those foreigners who do not feel safe have lost nothing in Germany and can leave for the shangri la they left behind. However, what the so called minority has been facing in Pakistan is unforgivable since they are all the original fabric of the country before it received its independence from the Brits. This phenomina has nothing to do with the religion or whatever other names they have given them, but simply is the display of power by the State and non state actors of the land. Can democracy function with the military rule, has been the real invention of not only Pakistan but several middle eastern countries as well. It has cost Pakistan the loss of Eastern wing and most muslim majority countries splitting in half.
Rex Minor
@Motiwala:
There is something dark and foreboding that lives in you. Do you really have any friends?
Rex Minor
As far as I know, the people who committed the atrocities had names like Adolph, Heinrich, Albert etc. There were no Yassirs or Abdullahs among the lot.
The people who have paid the biggest price for the atrocities of the holocaust had absolutely nothing to do with the horrors. The Germans got the Marshall plan dollars and had their country rebuilt. The Palestinians had their homeland stolen from them. What a travesty of justice.
@Toticalling:
"When I see demostratiins in many cities in Gerrmany against Muslims, I get worried. I live in Germany."
Aren't you being too self-centered?
The article highlight the concern for minorities in Pakistan. These concerns are based on real mistreatment and discrimination that has been carried out since last 4-5 decades. Minorities have suffered greatly and there is little chance of improvement. But rather than acknowledging this tragedy, you want to highlight the "imagined" threat of being Muslim in a developed country.
A simple fact that should highlight the difference between minority treatment in Pakistan vs in Developed world:
Minority % in Pakistan: dropped in from 20% in 1947 to 4% in 2010.
Muslim population in Germany: growing faster than native population.
@Rex Minor: Stay safe in Germany. And pray the Germans feed and clothe you. Extremist apologists like you are a dime a dozen. bad mouthing the Land of the Pure. dankbar, sie konnen Sie us FATA. [be thankful they let you out of FATA.]
ET moderators please print responding to directed comment from asylum seeker in Germany badmouthing Paks
Dear ET, if you do not wish to appear to be censoring criticism of your editorial consultant, do please publish my critical comment posted recently on Britain's ignoring the German Resistance during World war two, thus prolonging the atrocities in the concentration camps. There is nothing abusive etc. in my comment, nor is it irrelevant. Show you can take criticism!
@Kabir: There is no state sanctioned policy of sending people to death camps. There was no such thing in ww2 as well. They were first made homeless like the IDPS in the tribal region, and then sent over to various concentration camps and were sorted out to work as slaves in factories, or play musical instruments in concerts etc etc. Many perished and many did not and many escaped to the USA or Palestine.
Rex Minor
@Motiwala: What Sexton Blake has, many do not!! He has the knowledge and the experience which makes him the enlightened one! Do not criticise or lament about what you do not follow or understand for one life time is not enough to learn and collect experience too!
Rex Minor
@Sexton Blake: It is unfortunate indeed that the author compares the horrors of the 20th century WW2 with what is now occurring in Pakistan in the 21st century by the State and non State actors. Yes, there were millions and millions European folks who lost their lives in unbelievable horrific manner and in pursuit of National interests and territorial gains. The European Nations have come a long way since by forming a European Union, making borders among one another more or less meaningless, and although we remember the Auschwitz tragedy this week, we are also aware of the human rights violatons which many are still committing in pursuit of not territorial gains but hegemonic imperial philosphies.
Rex Minor
Ethnic cleansing has been around from very very early times.......some say as early as 350AD in China and the list goes on and on. The Auschwitz camp possibly being the most well know, thanks to Hollywood and much that has been written and publicized on it. What is happening in Pakistan to minorities is certainly atrocious and unforgivable but its a mixture of politics and crime under the garb of religion.......Auschwitz was something else on a totally different scale.
@Sexton Blake: Something is very very wrong with your logic. It's not logic at all, it's something dark and foreboding that lives in you. Do you really have any friends?
Very well narrated but what is next? Those who were being murdered and those who were responsible were people like us! Concentration camps gattos, segregation, terrorists and what more being done by only one kind and that culprit is Human. All moral stories look good in the books and their implication in our lives is just like bachelorhood is lack of opportunity. Can someone reverse engineer and re- create human without the instinct of predator? May be it is worth to try. At least let us experiment by celebrating not to worship in the world just for one day and see the rage of God? and one by one let us worship following rituals of all religions and find our score ? May be we will find nirvana , and the world will live in peace thereafter.
Some Pakistanis may be offended to read this.
But what I read is a piece from a man who cares about this country, and feels immense frustration about what it has become.
I do not want him to leave. I want him to stay and remind us of what we could have been, and still can be, but unfortunately what we have become.
We should welcome foreigners and try to rejoin the world. Living in this crazy madrassa / mullah / corrupt politician culture is NOT NORMAL.
I want to live in Qaid e Azam's Pakistans.
Nice article Mr Cork. I wonder if your ears are ringing from the cries of the Jaliawalan massacre of little children, unarmed helpless women and children. Your General Dyer was knighted, wasnt he? You English people hailed him as a hero "Good job the old boy did ! Taught a lesson to the natives, say !" He received a collection of a million pounds collected by the english. Jolly good people you all are pointing fingers at us.
This is my 2nd attempt to publish it. Truth will prevail, and I will keep trying. Why does the Tribune suppress truth though it is bitter for white people? How long should we remain slaves to UK? How dare Mr Cork, who represents the people who subjugated us and treated us as sub-human (and denied us Kashmir) call us names? Wake up my brother Muslims ! Wake up Pakistan !!
I have taken the train from Krakow to Auschwitz (Oswiecim). It's an eerie feeling to be on a train with the word: Oswiecim on the destination display of the locomotive - like the hundreds of thousands who were shipped into this little Polish town. Walking into the camp you see the organized horror of the place: rooms full of suitcases and glasses that once belonged to the people bought here to be murdered. I walked through the "showers", which to my 6' 1" inch frame had a really low ceiling, and I could imagine the people crowded in to be gassed in that claustrophobic chamber of horror.
After the trip I sat in a village bar, drinking Żywiec, contemplating about the ability of man to behave so monstrously. It takes several days to recover from a trip to Auschwitz and is certainly a cure for antisemitism
I would question Mr Cork's journalistic nomenclature. For example, I thought the old ploy of bodies used to make soap had been well refuted. However, due to Mr Cork being convinced he should reinforce his views by going to the US Library of Congress. The library has 2,240 newspaper articles, starting from the 187os, all of which explain how six million Jews have been treated dreadfully. Perhaps for a break from the Jewish question Mr Cork could also investigate the several million German prisoner-of-war murders, which were inflicted upon them by the British in the Rhine Meadow death camps.
People without empathy will not be able to hear a whisper, leave aside a scream. Thanks for telling us what Auschwitz was like and no I do not plan to be a tourist there.
Very powerful piece. Thank you. This nation needs more voices like yours at this crucial time.
Comparing the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to Nazi Germany is extremely offensive. There is no state sanctioned policy of sending people to death camps.
Honestly, if the author is so anti-Pakistan, he is free to leave the country. I'm surprised such an anti-Pakistan piece was published in a reputable Pakistani newspaper.
Your message resonates well with people like me who have lived In usa We have friends across all religion, color creeds. Unfortunately it is not universal here either. But at least i can go to place of my choice Pakistani,s should think what would happen if west starts similar policy. Read inquisition lately ?
I Do
Extermination methods of minorities takes many forms : shunning them from public life participation, denying them place of worship, denying them highest office of the land, glorification of majority, not recognizing their basic human rights of marriage, making them denouncing their belief, and so on.
In PAK, some are state policy and some are religious policy of the society and state, and some are cultural policy.
Extermination through murder is humane for minorities of PAK.
very well written. Millions were killed in Germany by nazis and nobody had the courage to stand up and try to stop the carnage. Ausschwitz in Poland was 70 years ago. Yes, I do hear the screams of under nourished human skeletons. They were all human beings like you and me on both sides of the wires. Germans have realized that religion divides people and this division can turn to hate and make us all murderers. After the war, they opened up their borders and welcomed all people from so many countries. Nearly half a million Jews returned to Germany.Now there are over 4 million Musilms living there. When I see demostratiins in many cities in Gerrmany against Muslims, I get worried. I live in Germany. Is history repaeting itself? I do not think so, but it is scary. I wish we could all call ourselves human beings and try to learn each others ways and do not close our minds and follow only one path blindly.
What a harrowing experience, visiting Auschwitz. Must have been truly something terrible you will never forget. And what kind of human beings are these, that wage sectarian and ethnic genocide. Here in Pakistan. No, they are not humans, by any definition.
Very sad piece Chris. May some sanity prevail in this country.