The Spiritual Writings and Websites of Jonathan Waxman

Author of Sefer Shinuyim - ספר שנויים The Book of Changes

The "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" - Entrance to Auschwitz Concentration Camp

An Inspirational "Thought of the Day"

How Lucky We Are to be ALIVE !

For the week from 26th March - 31st March 2008 I was in Krakow Poland, the visit included an exceedingly special visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Where we met up with many Jewish groups, including Auschwitz survivors who came with several Israeli groups, Israeli Army soldiers and many Chassidim who like us came Poland for the Yarzheit of Rebbe Noam Elimelech of Lizhensk.

The lady in the green coat is an Auschwitz survivor who now lives in Israel and came with the friendly group of Israeli soldiers; The man with the medals is a camp survivor who after the war went to live in Israel and fought in the War of Independance in 1948, the 6 Day War of 1967 and Yom Kippur War of 1973, the lesson he taught us was never to allow anyone EVIL destroy us !

"We all Feel Like One Large United Family"

The one thing we all had in common is that we are good loving and kind people, regardless of who we are, from which country and from whatever background and life we currently have - we all have something in common - being good people - and this connection made us all feel like one large united family.

Recognising the inherent badness of some evil people who destroyed and murdered good people; the atmosphere instilled in all of us a consideration, kindness and love for mankind that we must always and only focus on love and peace, never becoming hateful, angry and destructive like those evil nazis, poles and kapos; there is no excuse for any kind of evil anger and hatred - instead we should all find reasons to love life, love fellow good people and LOVE GOD for the gift of LIFE.

As you see from the many photos we all mixed, talked and learnt so much from each other as we all experienced the emotions of these awfully infamous nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

On a personal note, I learnt this valuable lesson last week (March 2008) in visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, appreciating the meaning of gift of life, the gift of love and the gift of everything we have in our lives, from the simplest of things like fresh air, food and even a comfortable bed to sleep in !

Photo above is of the entrance to "death wall" in between cell block 11 and 13, where 1000's of good people were tortured and murdered, including the priest Maximilian Kolbe. Visiting such an intense place as "Death Wall" at Auschwitz with its unique historical events made all of us realize how lucky we are to be alive and living in our generation, and not having had to experience such a death camp as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On a spiritual note, the intense energy of this place is due the fact that 1000's of people's souls left this physical world at that wall. The power of hatred and evil forced and murdered the souls of the good people out of this physical world at that wall, today we are able to stand in freedom and with love in our lives to think of those souls who had their lives stolen from them. We all felt an intense energy that I personally feel has instilled a tremendous energy of love, compassion and kindness, with a desire to want to live life to the fullest in memory of those good souls who had no choice but death in the hands of evil.

Being able to love and do kindness with other people is the cohesion for all of our mankind's existence and reason to live; without love, kindness and happiness there is only hatred and death (not the true energy to live life) life then becomes and torturous death. Therefore if we really want to change our lives - the recipe must be to LOVE more, do more kindness and delete out of our lives anything that is hateful and bad - just like all the junk emails we get everyday - delete them without a thought ;-) !

From some of the photos you will see the atmosphere was continually mixed between sadness, shock and disbelief at the reality and vastness; especially as we walked through the Gas Chamber and Crematorium at Auschwitz 1, and cell block 11 where the nazis shot 1000's of people at the "death wall", you can see the windows into that courtyard we all blocked, and candles lit at the wall for so many people who were murdered.

We met a Chassidish Rebbe and his entourage & a group of Israeli Soldiers - outside Gas Chamber Auschwitz 1

The one lesson we all learnt and appreciated as we drove away is the blessing of the GIFT OF LIFE. We all felt HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE !

Hence the sense of inner gratitude to GOD in seeing these awful places were the wicked nazis thought they could destroy all the Jewish people, and yet today 64 years later WE are the ones whom are ALIVE with the good fortune, good mazel and prosperity that GOD has blessed us to be able to travel and visit these places, and the german nazis are all dead and extinct - not a nazi in sight !

The lesson for all of us to learn is that there are evil and hateful people in this world who live for the sole purpose to hate and destroy good people - let us pray and hope they will end up the same way as the nazis - dead !

It is quite a big difference between reading and hearing about Auschwitz and actually walking through this place physically and in real reality, to know that between 1939 and 1945 over 1.5 million people from all over Europe were transported and murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The vastness of Auschwitz-Birkenau, especially Birkanau is unbelievable. We walked from the infamous entrance along the train line to the Gas Chamber 2 and 3 in Birkenau ( which the Nazis blew up as they fled Birkenau in January 1945).

From the photos above you can see - it is as far as the eye can see - unbelievable to comprehend.

The steps leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau Gas Chamber 3 with Crematorium tower blown-up in ruins.

Thankfully today we can visit and feel safe, nontheless I recommend you go with a group and with people you really love, as walking in such places brings out an intense emotional energy, which needs love to counterbalance the evil of hatred that caused murder and death.

In our group we found that only through the safety and support of LOVE could we even talk about the experience of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau. I recognize that it has changed my life, and during this numb period of understanding what i experienced last week, i know its going to change my priorities in life, my attitude to life and the way that i write on these websites !

Thanking GOD for the Gift of Life

As we took one look back leaving Birkenau, we all felt - what a blessing that we have the gift of life and that we were not living at the time of Nazis in 1939-1945 when they murdered over 6 Million Jews in Europe, of which over 1.5 Million were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. How lucky we are to have the gift of life with a desire to live life and LOVE and THANK GOD that we will never succumb to be evil and hateful.

I shall restart work on this feature of the websites in Summer 2008