Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Photography, Poland

Arbeit macht frei – The story of an inverted “B”

As soon as you pass the entry blocks at the Auschwitz former concentration camp and assemble for your guide to brief the group, you’ll notice written arching over the main iron gate: Arbeit Macht Frei. It loosely translates into English as “Work sets you free.” A cynical lie that the Nazis propagated, as they starved, tortured, maimed and gave horrible death to 1.1 million people that were sent here during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland.

Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
The Gate: Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Photo: Romil Javed; 18 Sep 2017

There are many stories, anecdotes and examples of true grit and character that come out of these fenced barbwires. One of them, however, is less known.

Story of the “B,” that’s upside-down

A careful gaze at the very gate with the cynical lie, and you can notice the letter “B” in the word Arbeit. It looks upside-down!

The inverted “B”: A lesser-known fact about the Auschwitz I main gate
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This may not look apparent to an unsuspecting eye at first, but someone with a basic knowledge of typography can confirm that it’s indeed inverted.

According to the International Auschwitz Committee, “…the prisoners placed their hidden message in the word “Arbeit”: they turned the letter “B” upside down. They were enraged by the endless fear, the everyday humiliations, the beatings, the hatred and the murder that they were forced to witness. They created a mark of their courage, their will to overcome the fear, to survive and later to tell the world about what happened in Auschwitz.

Auschwitz – A lesson in humanity, for humans

A walking tour through these relics of not so distant past, one is reminded of the despicable atrocities committed by one group of humans on another. Similarly, there are stories abound of personal grit of some in the face of certain death, of innumerable selfless sacrifices and the sheer will of human survival.

Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Portraits from Auschwitz: (From left) A professor, a lawyer, a smiling woman and a labourer

Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite.

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Remnants of the past: Shoes segregated from a stack

Executions took place in a courtyard between Block 10 and Block 11. Block 11 was known as the “Block of Death” by the prisoners.

Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Block No. 10: A closed block at the Former Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Photo: Romil Javed, 18 Sep 2017

The Auschwitz II Birkenau Concentration Camp

A short 30 minutes ride from the main Auschwitz I camp brings you to the biggest of the Auschwitz camps, and one of the largest killing fields of World War II.

Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Arrival: The railway track into the former Auschwitz II Birkenau concentration camp. Photo: Romil Javed, 18 Sep 2017

Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944.

The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them; in addition to working, they faced long roll calls at night. As a result, most prisoners in the men’s camp in the early months died of hypothermia, starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks.

Arbeit macht frei - The story of inverted letter B
Rubble of a Crematorium: A group of Jewish visitors offer a remembrance prayer next to a demolished crematorium. Photo: Romil Javed, 18 Sep 2017

So, let us be alert – alert in a twofold sense.

Since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of.

And since Hiroshima, we know what is at stake.

― Victor E Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
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Music

तो ज़िंदा हो तुम…

Film: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Written by Javed Akhtar, Recited by Farhan Akhtar

दिलों में तुम अपनी
बेताबियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो ज़िंदा हो तुम
नज़र में ख्वाबों की
बिजलियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो ज़िंदा हो तुम

हवा के झोकों के जैसे
आज़ाद रहना सीखो
तुम एक दरिया के जैसे
लहरों में बहना सीखो
हर एक लम्हें से तुम मिलो
खोले अपनी बाहें
हर एक पल एक नया समां
देखे यह निगाहें

जो अपनी आँखों में
हैरानियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो ज़िंदा हो तुम
दिलों में तुम अपनी
बेताबियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो ज़िंदा हो तुम

Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
Nazar mein khwabon ki
Bijliyaan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

Hawa ke jhokon ke jaise
Aazad rehna seekho
Tum ek dariya ke jaise
Lehron mein behna seekho
Har ek lamhe se tum milo
Khole apni baahein
Har ek pal ek naya sama
Dekhen yeh nigahaein

Jo apni aankhon mein
Hairaniyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum
Dilon mein tum apni
Betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho
Toh zinda ho tum

If you are moving
with an eagerness in your heart,
then you are alive
If you’re moving
with the sparks of dreams in your eyes,
then you’re alive

Learn to live freely
like the gusts of wind,
Learn to flow in waves,
like a river does
Meet every moment
with your arms open,
Every moment these eyes should
watch a new weather

If you’re moving with
a bewilderment in your eyes
then you are alive
If you are moving
with an eagerness in your heart,
then you are alive

Inspired by a post from Atul Chitnis (1962-2013) – FOSS evangelist, Pink Floyd fan and a fine human being.

 

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Skywatching

A season of astronomical delights!

I dearly missed two things in the last two days: Owning a aperture-rich Telescope and being at a place with minimal light pollution. I am a casual skywatcher and this month, specially, last two days have been nonetheless quite delightful for me!

Although the planets near to earth (Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter) are visible to naked eyes quite often, but since December 14 last year, they have been sort of aligning together in some sort of pattern or visible at the same time in a clear night sky. On February 25, 2012 they were kind of aligning perfectly moments after dusk. I missed the Mercury as it almost followed Sun and wasn’t possible to notice it. However, I did take several sumptuous view of Venus, Jupiter and Mars and our very own crescent Moon with craters visible.

Moon, Venus and Jupiter: Degrees apart

Mars on the eastern horizon

Red bleak yet bright enough to notice.

Mars

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Interests, Music

Windmills of Your Mind



Windmills of Your Mind ~ Sting [The Thomas Crown Affair]

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it’s own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that you said
Lovers walking along the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

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Music

Signs of Life – Pink Floyd

David Jon Gilmour is great!

This song, the opening to my favorite Pink Floyd album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason is a mysterious yet soothing instrumental piece. Gilmour is great with guitar as usual. The album has a background voice by Nick Mason, faint and almost negligible though.

If Wikipedia article is correct, the person rowing the boat through River Cam, Grantchester is Langley Iddens, caretaker of Gilmour’s houseboat studio Astoria. (Wow, already feel like owning one myself, sometime.)

Great one, my personal rating 8.5/10.

When the child like view of the world went, nothing replaced it… Nothing replaced it… Nothing replaced it…
I do not like being asked to… I do not like being asked to… I do not like being asked to…

Other people replaced it,
Someone who knows.

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Music

Daag – Dilip Kumar

I have a very faint and fleeting memories of this song, my father used to humm in one of those fine mornings while getting ready for work.

Talat Mehmood has given his mellow and famously trembling voice to legendary Dilip Kumar (aka Yusuf Khan) in the 1952 romantic classic called Daag (Film by Amiya Chakrabarty).

Video

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/eros-movie-songs/hs277O91/1/Dilip-Kumar-s-Daag.html

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