Poland: Auschwitz

Hitler's comments on Jews prior to coming to power in Germany:

"If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!" Adolf Hitler, 1922 (quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler. London: Book Club Associates, 1977, p.116)

Mohamed Morsi, leader of Muslim Brotherhood, on Jews prior to coming to power in Egypt:

“We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.  Egyptian children must feed on hatred; hatred must continue. The hatred must go on for God and as a form of worshiping him.....Jews are bloodsuckers and descendants of apes and pigs."  

When evil men speak, their words should be believed.  To deal with such men as if they are just 'speaking to their base / gaining support for political purposes' or to believe they 'really wouldn't do what they say they will do' is naive at best.

6 million Jewish deaths resulted from weak men placating Hitler for many years.  It is rather stunning to me how anyone cannot see that men like Morsi and other radical Muslims if they had the ability would, without question, annihilate Israel and murder another 6 million Jews.

While I realize Morsi has been deposed by the Egyptian military, I included the quote because so many made excuses for such language even while he was President of Egypt.  And there is certainly no shortage of Muslim leaders from Iran's leaders denying the Holocaust publicly to other Muslim leaders calling for the annihilation of Israel and the Jews.

There must never be another Auschwitz.  Pray that our leaders work against those who lead through hate.

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Rachel and I never imagined one of our stops on this family journey would be Auschwitz. The decision to come here grew slowly but inexorably since April when we visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (Israeli Holocaust Museum).  The girls left that place with serious questions on how such a thing could ever happen.  How could Hitler come to power?  How could such evil reign?  How could the people of Germany stand by and allow it to happen?

Over the past few months, I have watched our girls come to a very clear understanding that EVIL EXISTS and that the concept of moral relativism (a philosophy based on 'feelings'...there is no good or evil...it's all relative) is absolutely false.  Not only is moral relativism false, it is a major threat to civilized society.  This philosophy without question renounces God, has been promoted by atheists as a higher moral code, now permeates Western (American/European) society, and most certainly dominates Western education systems.

So, the girls coming to their own conclusion on the fact that evil exists versus evil is relative was a major bonus to us as parents.  Thus, we encouraged this study and ultimately supported this trip to Auschwitz.

As a part of their home schooling, they began to study Hitler, the Holocaust, and other aspects of evil.  Here are the books we have read (the first 4 everyone read, the others some have read...click on links for more details...will open in separate tabs / windows):

Rena's Promise: Two Sisters in Auschwitz (incredible story)

The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness (Christian Heroes: Then & Now)

The Hiding Place (the story of Corrie ten Boom & family....one of our family's favorites!)

When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany

Auschwitz (written by Jewish doctor who was selected to work for Dr. Mengele in the crematorium complex...one of very few eyewitness accounts to what happened there)

The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom

If you can only read one book from above, read Rena's Promise.  It is an amazing true story of Rena Kornreich Gelissen who arrived on the first Jewish transport to Auschwitz and somehow survived 3 years in this hell on earth.  We all read this book, and all of us agreed after visiting Auschwitz that it really helped us understand what we were seeing much better.  If you are going to visit Auschwitz, definitely read Rena's book.  

The Marketing of Evil is another interesting book that should be read by anyone confused as to how that which was once considered aberrant or evil is now considered normal and acceptable in America. 

Auschwitz I

We had quite a surprise as we drove up to Auschwitz.  We were expecting a dilapidated camp but that was not the case at all.  From reading Rena's Promise, we knew Rena and her sister started at Auschwitz I and later were moved to the larger Auschwitz-Berkinau camp opened in late 1942.  I guess we thought they were side by side and would look similar.  But they are about 3km apart and are very different.  

Auschwitz I originally was a Polish Army base converted by the Nazis into a prison camp to house Polish political prisoners and later Soviet POWs.   It had brick buildings and still stands today intact, much as it was in the 1940s.  Most of the 'museum' part of Auschwitz is now in these buildings (called 'Blocks')  

We learned this place was a place of terror and torture.  It served as the breeding and testing grounds for the horrors that would ultimately be used to implement 'The Final Solution'  

The enormity and insanity of the Nazi's Final Solution - extermination of the Jews....from Oslo to Athens, Paris to Russia....so many were sent to Auschwitz.  Bear in mind that a large percentage of the murders occurred in 1944 as the German 'Reich' was in retreat.  Still, they devoted considerable resources to killing Jews and other 'undesirables' even as they were collapsing and losing the war.  Evil.

We debated in the days leading up to our visit whether we should hire a guide or tour by ourselves.  We decided to tour on our own and it was 100% absolutely the correct call for our family.  We read online that most tours last 1 1/2 hours in Auschwitz I, but what we saw were tour guides almost jogging their groups through the buildings and missing out on so much important information.  We spent over 3 hours in Auschwitz I and didn't come close to seeing everything.

For anyone going to Auschwitz, we would suggest either hire a private guide just for you and your family and pay him/her for the whole day so you can go at your own pace.  Or do what we did....buy a little guide book at the bookstore near the front entrance (less than $5) and rely on the well documented placards around the site to guide you along.

As I read through some of the books mentioned above, I often wondered why didn't people who were sent to these camps resist more given the near certainty of death in the long run?  One answer (at least for those whose entire family hadn't been sent to Auschwitz) came with this placard....

Originally, Auschwitz was for Polish political prisoners.  It had a number of buildings and a large open courtyard.  These prisoners built other 'blocks' (buildings) to house more prisoners until the roll call mentioned in the placard below occurred in the streets which remained inside the camp.

Rena arrived in March 1942 after the original Auschwitz had been built out in this manner.  She mentions these brutal roll calls quite a bit in her book both at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Berkinau.

As Germany invaded Russia, this place became a POW camp as well for Soviet POWs.  When Rena arrived she writes about living in Block 10 directly next to the area where firing squads would murder Soviet POWs and other political prisoners.  She writes about watching these executions through a small hole in the blacked out window and realizing her first oversized, blood stained, striped uniform was formerly worn by one of these men.

Rena writes about living in Block 10 (building AJ is playing in front of) and how at that time there was a large barb wire fence running down the middle of this road.  The women's camp was on the left side (other than Block 11 which was basically the Block of Terror and Execution) and the men's camp was on the right side.  Her room was on the second floor and she writes about talking to another Polish man on the second floor of the building on the right.  He ends up putting care packages together for her of food etc and throwing it over the barb wire for her to retrieve.

Front view of Block 10.  Rena's room was in the upper right area.  Notice the wall extending from the right side of the building...

....the wall led to the firing squad area of the camp.  Block 10 is to the left with windows facing the execution area boarded up.  Block 11 (The Terror Block) is to the right.  Prisoners who found themselves in Block 11 didn't come out alive.

Firing squad area...

Drawing from prisoner who witnessed executions displayed in a room which overlooks area where executions occurred...

In this building, absolute evil reigned.  This building was the building where the Nazis first tested gassing people to death using Zyklon B....the poison which would ultimately be used to murder millions of Jews in the gas chambers of the Reich.

This building is where the 'courts' of the Reich handed down sentences....most often death sentences or some form of horrific torture which usually led to death.

Two of the 'judges' who pronounced sentences.  The faces of evil....

Many original Polish prisoners were Christians who scratched Christian symbols into the walls before being executed....

One of the many tortures used to kill inmates (starvation cells).  It wasn't used that often because it took too long to work and the Nazis had too many people to kill.  Other tortures included locking people into 'standing' cells that were too small to lay down in, hanging prisoners with their arms behind their backs (effectively ripping their arms out of socket), and other practices too gory to describe here.  This building just gave me the chills as the presence of evil resonates even to this day.  

Realizing what happened here and standing in this place was sobering.  This basement is where the mass killing process really began to take shape.  The first gassing didn't work as expected as some people lived.  So, they increased the amount of Zyklon B and finished the job.

After proving to themselves gassing with Zyklon B could kill large numbers of people quickly, the Nazis converted this munition bunker to be the first gas chamber / crematorium in the Reich.

Exterior view...

The first gas chamber...

The first crematorium.  The rails and cars were used in the large crematoriums created in Auschwitz-Berkinau to efficiently move 3 bodies at a time into the incinerators.

Memorial with ashes from Auschwitz....

Each building in Auschwitz I was a museum unto itself....

Some displayed the evidence of the atrocities performed including the poison used in the gas chambers....

The empty cans of poison....

Some buildings displayed evidence of Hitler's evil empire profiting off murder in many different ways.  In this display was a burlap like cloth which forensic science shows to be made of human hair.

There were several places during the day where I got choked up and this was one of those places.  I don't even have the entire wall of hair shown here but the dark stuff behind the glass is hair from people sent to the gas chambers....

These are the bags of human hair found on the day of liberation....

And how much the Nazis were able to sell this hair for...

I did a little bit of research to figure out what this would mean in 2013 $US.  The latest exchange rate I could find was 1 German Mark = $2.50 in 1941.  From the data above, there are 100 phennigs in a German Mark....so 2KG of hair = 1 German Mark = $2.50 in 1941 US Dollars.

Using an inflation calculator, I found that $2.50 in 1941 has the same purchasing power as $39.71 in 2013 US Dollars.  So, 1950 KG of hair had an economic value to the Nazis of $38,717 in 2013 US Dollars.

These sick, evil people in Nazi Germany devised schemes where they would go to Jews after having persecuted them for years and tell them they were going to be confined to a part of the Eastern part of the Reich set up especially for Jews. The Nazis said they would be able to own land and live in that area without interference so long as they stayed in the area designated for Jews.

They sold Jews land, gave them deeds to the property they were going to have, and by doing this the Nazis insured that on the day they reported for their train to the East they would have their most valuable possessions on them.  Of course, everything was a lie.  There was no land, no Jewish area.  They stole their money, then stole everything they brought with them, and sent the vast majority who arrived directly to the gas chambers.

They would then take the items and distribute clothes and shoes to Germans.  They would melt down jewelry for gold and silver and even had a team of prisoners in the crematoriums extracting gold from the teeth of corpses before sending them to the fires.  They had huge store houses code named 'Canada' where all the items would be processed after the trains had arrived.  At times there was so much stuff they simply burned less valuable items to make space for newly arrived items.

Prayer shawls...

Shoes...the display of kids shoes (not pictured) was one of the places that got me...

and the suitcases with names on them got me as well....

Here is the amount of food in an entire day that prisoners received who were chosen for slave labor...

and example beds where they slept in Auschwitz I (with creepy ghost image of H)

Accommodations got much worse when they opened Auschwitz-Birkenau...

Rena wrote about the importance of sleeping in the middle bunks at Birkenau.  The lower bunks were infested with rats that would gnaw on prisoners all night.  The high bunks were dangerous because if you fell out and so much as sprained an ankle it could mean death for you at the next selection. So she and her sister made sure they got a middle bunk each night.

Below is a reconstructed interior of a brick barrack for prisoners at Birkenau.  More than 700 prisoners were assigned to one barrack and at least 5 prisoners slept on each pallet.  The barracks had practically no heating and lacked any sanitation.

Another moving aspect of the buildings in Auschwitz I were the hallways.  They were lined with prisoner photos including date of birth, occupation prior to coming to Auschwitz and date of death at Auschwitz.

You read the numbers above....more than a million Jews murdered in this place alone.... but its hard to fathom the enormity of that.  Then you look into the eyes of these men and women and you can almost hear them saying 'never forget.'

There were about 1,000 pictures like this in each building we went into...

...but then you think about going into 10 buildings and seeing those 10,000 photos and you realize these men and women don't even represent 1% of the total number of people murdered here.  Evil.
One of the things you would miss using a tour guide is the upper floor of Block 11.  This area was one of my favorites because it showcased men and women who fought back....the resistance in the camp....the acts of sabotage against the SS and the Nazis....the successful escape attempts (yes, there were several 100 successful escapes)...and what happened to those who were caught.

I don't remember exactly what these men and women did but when we read their stories the girls pointed out that these were stories that Rena described in the book.  So, I took these pictures as we all agreed we were going to re-read Rena's Promise now that we have been to Auschwitz.  One thing I know is that these are men and women who didn't lie down and die.  They fought their oppressors and died taking Nazis with them...

The one bright spot of the day was AJ.  Obviously we did not take him into most of the buildings.  Either Rachel or me would stay outside playing with AJ in the street while the other would go through a given building.  Then the other parent would go in focusing on rooms the first parent said were most important.

There is something beautiful about seeing a little boy run and jump and play in a place that once was hell on earth....

We had gone down an entire row of block houses from 1 to 11 and then walked this short road to a parallel road with another 10 block houses.  Our little guide book really didn't mention these houses but as we turned right we noticed a sign on the front of the building (seen here directly to the right) which said something like "To the Jews of The Netherlands"   Since we had been to the Netherlands and read Anne Frank's Diary, we went inside.   We could have easily spent an hour in this building dedicated to the Jews of The Netherlands.  It was VERY well done...

How is it possible that 107,000 of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands were deported to German concentration and exterminations camps?  How is it possible that only 5,500 Jews survived those deportations?  This exhibit painted a picture of the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands.  The majority of them died in Auschwitz.  The exhibit showed how a policy of isolation and deportation eventually took them to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Three weeks before her family was arrested, Anne Frank wrote these words....

There were no grotesque pictures in this exhibit so we brought AJ in with us and spent at least 30 minutes here....

In the Bible, Matthew 10:39 reads "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it."   I thought of this verse when I read things like this....

I often wonder how these kind of people lived with themselves after the war.  How can you watch your friends and neighbors be persecuted, be rounded up, and be deported and do nothing?

When you 'cling to your life', that is what you do.  You cling to your own life.  And maybe you will remain living as in having a heartbeat....but your real life, your spirit will die as you will always know that by your silence, by your cowardice you allowed this horror to happen.  No matter how one rationalizes things, that is the truth....and that is what happens when we worship ourselves, the kingdom of 'me' rather than serving God and serving others and standing up against evil.

And the result of seemingly good, nice men and women placating evil is a wall like this....

From a distance it looks like a bunch of black and gray panels.  But then you get closer, this is what it looks like....

We looked for Anne Frank's name on this wall but she died in Bergen Belsen.  The names on this wall are only those from the Netherlands who died in Auschwitz.  14 panels filled with tiny names, date of birth, date of death and town.

Study room with hundreds of stories about the Jews of the Netherlands...

As we walked down that row of block houses, we realized that the Netherlands was just one of many museums dedicated to Jews of a specific country.  There were other houses dedicated to the Jews from Poland, France, Belgium, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and many other countries.  Sobering.

Auschwitz - Birkenau

"Birkenau is a cruel awakening.  In Auschwitz there was a lot of death, but it was not such a daily fact of life.  Now we see death every day.  It is a constant like our meals.  And there are not just one or two girls dying, like before, but tens and twenties and losing count."  - Rena Kornreich Gelissen, Rena's Promise

We went to Birkenau and were surprised again.  This place was more desolate as the Nazis attempted to destroy as much evidence of what they had done before the Soviets liberated this place January 25, 1945.  Afterward, the Polish people came and took wood and other building materials to rebuild their own homes until it was protected as a museum site in 1947.  What surprised us was how HUGE this place was.

Rachel was near the main entrance to Birkenau (pictured above) and took the picture below.  The gas chambers and crematoriums were located in the trees far in the distance.  That represents the width of the camp.

The length of the camp was even larger as noted in the diagram below.  The commandant of Auschwitz stated at his trial (which resulted in his execution) that at its height Birkenau held over 100,000 prisoners.  

The only surviving pictures of Birkenau were taken by an SS man, not for propaganda purposes (as the Nazis tried to hide what they were doing), but probably to report to superiors in Germany as to how the selection process occurred.  The pictures below are from that album.  The story of the album and all the pictures can be found at the Yad Vashem website http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/content1.asp

In the picture below you can see the entrance to Birkenau in the background and the Hungarian Jews getting out of the train cars....

A replica car is in Birkenau at the place where life and death selections were made.  On average 90 people were in each car with no food or water sometimes for many days.  Young, old, and sick died in these cars but the doors were never opened until they arrived at this place.

Notice how tiny the entrance looks in the background.  Again, this place was massive...

The Jews were 'selected' on the railway platform.  Those to be gassed were sent in one direction. Those being sent to hard labor were sent in the other direction.  If the camp was too full, then everyone was sent to the gas chamber.  

These men and women were selected for work details, had their heads shaved and were given uniforms.  The average lifespan for someone on a work detail was 3 months as starvation, disease, and Nazi cruelty took life quickly.  Less then 8,000 people were alive when the camp was liberated in January 1945.  The rest were either murdered or sent on death marches to other camps.  

Unless Dr. Mengele wanted to do some awful experiment on the victims, all children under the age of 14 and all elderly were sent straight to the gas chambers.  

These pictures were posted on placards leading to the gas chamber.  Every person in these photos was murdered less than an hour after these pictures were taken.  

As I looked at these pictures, it dawned on me that if our family arrived on this train my pregnant wife, 3 year old son, and 11 year old daughter would have been sent immediately to the gas chamber.  Mengele would have taken our 14 year old twin daughters and spared them the gas chamber as he loved to do experiments on twins.  But their death would have been assured as well.  After whatever horrific experiment he did on them, they would have each gotten a bullet in the back of the head and then had an autopsy done for his 'scientific research.'  Evil.  I may have been spared initially but as stated above the average lifespan of an able bodied man was 3 months.  

The long walk to the gas chamber....

Once to the gas chamber / crematorium compound, the victims sometimes had to wait outside in the wooded area as shown in these pictures.

And finally, the gas chamber / crematorium complex.... 

Point A was the entrance point.  

Point C was the undressing room.

Point D was the gas chamber.

Point F was the crematorium with H being the smoke stacks.

Point I and J were areas where ashes were dumped.  

Picture of Crematorium II which operated from March 1943 to November 1944 before being dismantled as the Soviet Army neared.  The Nazis tried to hide their crimes by blowing up these buildings, but what remains matches architectural plans found....and there is plenty of other evidence as to what happened here.

Incinerators in Crematorium II (Pictured below).  There were 4 large gas chamber / crematorium compounds like this at Berkinau plus a smaller one that fell into disuse in 1943.  Each could dispose of 1,500 corpses in a day.  These larger compounds were in operation from March 1943 until November 1944.  20 months, day and night, burning bodies.  Even if they were only working half the time or even if they each 'only' disposed of 750 bodies a day it would still add up to well over 1 million murdered people incinerated.

These are the steps representing Point A from the diagram above leading to the undressing room.  No Jew selected for death ever walked down these steps and walked out the other side alive.

By Himmler's order, the deception was to be continued all the way into the gas chamber to include fake shower heads being installed.  Very few workers in the crematorium compound (called Sonderkommandos) lived to tell what happened in these moments.  One who did paraphrased what the SS would say to the Jews in the undressing room:

"On behalf of the camp administration I bid you welcome. This is not a holiday resort but a labor camp. Just as our soldiers risk their lives at the front to gain victory for the Third Reich, you will have to work here for the welfare of a new Europe. How you tackle this task is entirely up to you. The chance is there for every one of you. We shall look after your health, and we shall also offer you well-paid work. After the war we shall assess everyone according to his merits and treat him accordingly.

Now, would you please all get undressed. Hang your clothes on the hooks we have provided and please remember your number [of the hook]. When you've had your bath there will be a bowl of soup and coffee or tea for all. Oh yes, before I forget, after your bath, please have ready your certificates, diplomas, school reports and any other documents so that we can employ everybody according to his or her training and ability.

Would diabetics who are not allowed sugar report to staff on duty after their baths."

The model below shows the assembly line killing factory the Nazis created.  The undressing room is to the left.  The gas chamber is coming toward the camera on the right and the crematorium is the building on the right.  This model is also at Yad Vashem in Israel.

The dynamited gas chamber (coming toward the camera) and dynamited crematorium in the background.

Below is one of the places ashes were dumped.  This used to be a pond but so many ashes were poured into it that there isn't much of a pond left.

We walked back through the remains of the camp.  From the crematorium to the bus at the front gate, it was a 15 minute walk at a fast pace, probably a 25 minute walk at a leisurely pace. 

We took most of these pictures due to building numbers that Rena mentioned in her book....blocks where she and her sister had been housed or where certain events had occurred during her time there.

Most of the camp looked like this block as the Polish people used wood and bricks after the war for their own buildings.

Sample barracks from Birkenau.

We left this place in a mood befitting such a visit.  I thought about parts of the Bible that mention demons and how those parts have been very distant to me in the past.  But those are the parts of the Bible I thought of as I walked through this place.  

This mass murder wasn't just a few evil leaders making things happen.  It required thousands of people to make it happen.  How could normal, functioning people murder thousands of people every day....totally innocent people... women... children... young, old....how could a normal person be a part of that?  I don't think it is possible.  I think it is demonic and these people were possessed by demons; that's the only rational explanation for how farm boys from Germany could act as wolves shepherding sheep to their slaughter day in and day out.

We spoke as we drove from Poland to our last stop in Europe, Prague.  A number of the things I started this note with are things we talked about during that drive.

1.  Evil exists

2.  To deny evil exists is to deny morality is to deny God.  

3.  Moral relativism sounds good because it is based on feelings, not logic.  But put into practice it will destroy society.  Here is an interesting quote on the topic....

Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism, by intuition. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology, and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories, and men who claim to be the bearers of an objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than fascism.       —Benito Mussolini

4.  Evil must be called out and confronted, especially when it is still weak and forming.  

5.  Evil men and women should be believed when they speak of what they will do when they have power.  

So, when a man like Morsi immorally encourages and promotes hate and calls Jews apes and pigs, one should believe that he and the organization he leads will act immorally once in power.  

When the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, reassures Palestinians that the political peace process with Israel is just part of a larger scheme to defeat Israel, he should be believed.  

This man went on television and compared the current US driven peace negotiations to the Hudaybiyyah Peace Treaty concluded between Islam's prophet Mohammed and the Quarish tribe of Mecca and explained that many of Mohammed's companions burned with anger that their leader was negotiating with the Quraish tribe rather than attacking Mecca.  He explained that Mohammed knew that only a more measured approach would lead to victory.  Two years after signing the treaty, Mohammed's forces had gained enough strength and launched the brutal conquest of Mecca (My comment:  Sound familiar?  Hitler and the Sudetenland, Annex of Austria, "peace in our time" treaty with Neville Chamberlain....and then once strong enough WAR).  Al Habbash continued, "This is the example and this is the model the Palestinian leadership is following regarding Israel."  When leaders like this make public pronouncements like that, they should be believed.  

When Iran says they will wipe Israel off the face of the earth, do not assume that they will suddenly develop a conscience once they have a nuclear weapon.  

But equally as important, morals matter on an individual scale.  God gave us the 10 Commandments because He knew, long term they would lead to the most joy and the most spirit filled life.   

I could write and write on this subject from telling the truth to sexual purity to fidelity in marriage.  The moral relativists promote 'if it feels good do it' but look at the results of that philosophy over the past 50 years in America....divorce rates near 50% impacting kids and adults in significantly negative ways (but it 'felt' better to at least one of the parents at the time, consequences and negative outcomes to others be damned).  We now have an epidemic in sexually transmitted diseases (though the severity of the epidemic is not talked about in schools).  Some of these diseases have no symptoms and are only identified years later when a woman is trying to have a baby but learns her reproductive organs have been attacked.  

'If it feels good do it' requires abortion on demand as a backstop birth control method, but few talk to young women about the emotional consequences of tearing life apart.  Instead, moral relativists lie to young women as they are considering an abortion and say their 13 week old 'fetus' is just a mass of cells.  To a moral relativist this lie is justified because it furthers their worldview and it really is best for her to not be burdened with a baby.  To call it anything other than a 'mass of cells' would be mean and cause emotional pain.  

How do these women feel years later when they are married and see the sonogram of a 13 week old baby that they want?  And then they know the truth that what they destroyed years ago wasn't a 'mass of cells'  That baby like her current baby had a heart beat (as early as the 6th week of gestation), a developing brain, little arms and legs with tiny fingers and tiny toes.  The emotional pain will still be there but she will just have to live with it rather than having a choice as to what to do.  

Moral relativism is completely 'me' focused so business people completely lying (think financial scandals) for personal gain have multiplied tremendously the past 50 years as society outlaws any public display involving God and eliminates God from anything other than personal belief.  

As stated above, I could write and write on this subject but it is time to end this long post.  This day was a very, very impactful day for our family.  The discussions as noted above were powerful and meaningful.  

For a more in depth study of moral relativism and why it is a bankrupt, dangerous philosophy please comment below about this post and then read the following: 

 http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/05_relativism/relativism_transcription.htm#1

God bless.