On Nov. 19, 1996, I was on my way to Auschwitz, Poland, to spend Thanksgiving week in a “bearing witness” retreat with 150 Buddhists from across the United States and Europe. The retreat would be led by Roshi (Master) Bernie Glassman, abbot of the Zen Community of New York and the Zen Center of Los Angeles.
After two days of travel, I arrived in the town of Oswiecim (changed to Auschwitz by the Nazis), where a labor camp became a death factory that claimed the lives of up to 1.5 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and political prisoners.
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