Like Sheep Before Their Shearers

#24, Auschwitz Album Revisited

Oil Painting by Dr. Pat Mercer Hutchens

Here was the Nazi process: round up Jews all over Europe, herd them into ghettos, round them up again and stuff them into cattle cars, take them on the long trip to Auschwitz (many died on the train), divide them by male and female, “select” those who would die, or live and be worked to death. Those selected to die were sent immediately to the gas chambers and burned in the ovens or fire pits. Those selected to live were sent to a shower, undressed, (gold teeth pulled), hair was chopped off crudely, delousing powder was poured over them; they picked out an old dress and boots and got in line to work. These three young shorn and shocked women stood in a line of hundreds.