The Gap

Today we crossed the gap into the unknown. In many ways.

We'd been to Poland several times before, and today were driving to its Eastern border with Ukraine. For us, this was the start of the unknown.

Stopped off in Lublin, to pick up a few provisions, and on the way out of town espied a huge stone edifice dominating the skyline. This chilling monument evocatively marks the site of the Majdanek concentration camp, though the grey rifts and folds of its tortured stone surface merely prepare one's emotions for the full depth and range of feelings that a visit to the preserved camp behind it soon elicits.

While only a portion of the camp still stands, the wire compounds, the storeroom of Cyclon B, the crematoria, the huts with their stockpiles of confiscated shoes, all have a chilling tale to tell.

We spent several hours there, and later moved on, into the Ukraine, mindful of the countless others sixty-something years before, who'd spent somewhat longer there, and moved on through such a different exit.