The nightmare process of the camps

[SheilaT]

7. As awful as Guantanamo is, the concentration

camps of the Nazi regime were even worse.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib were in any way okay. But what the Nazis did was a degree of dehumanization unmatched in human history. And they did it to millions of people.

I've read any number of books on the various concentration camps, recently watched a several part series about Auschwitz on Netflix. On my honeymoon in 1980, when we went to Poland, where part of my husband's family was from, I insisted we visit Auschwitz. He was understandably reluctant, as he is Jewish, although all of his immediate family to the second or third degree, got out before the Nazis arrived.

As difficult as it was, I'm very glad we went, and he was also. More than once I've wondered if I could have survived, had I been around then. Part of that answer depends on how old I would have been. In my younger days, possibly yes. Now that I'm well over 60, the answer is no, not at my age. Oh, maybe I'd have survived the initial selection, but I would not have had the strength and resilience of youth to make it very long.

And it's hard to realize, even though it's important to remember, that each and every person that perished was part of a larger network: son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, niece, nephew, cousin, and so on. Entire families were wiped out totally.

And so, while Guantanamo is unspeakably awful and should never have come into existence, it pales in comparison to Auschwitz and the system of death camps of the Nazi era.