编辑这篇文章的时候，心非常沉重、压抑和愤怒。每颗心都有痛处，历史也一样。在二战那个兽性横行的时期，种族差别论被灌输，种族身份变得异常显眼，甚至超过了被包容的限度。人性的缺失已经到了残忍地展开大规模种族灭绝行动的地步，杀人如呼吸！太可怕了！向那些身处集中营而不忘教育自己民族的后代用知识、画笔和心获得自由的人们致敬！为那些惨死在集中营里的善良而又无辜的人们难过！为那些还没来得及长大的孩子心痛！
让那些邪恶的人都见鬼去吧！
让我们好好地了解并记住那段历史！我们呼唤和平，拒绝战争！ ——Lavender
文字难度：★★★
On Sunday morning we had breakfast inside a lovely little café near our hostel. It was a beautiful morning and from our window, I noticed a young boy in a 1)scruffy French football shirt, 2)crying his eyes out. I never expected to see the boy again, but just before we finished eating, the young 3)lad reappeared and asked me how much money I had. He was trying to sell me some crayon pictures. I sternly told him I wasn’t going to tell him how much money I had, but I did ask how much he wanted for his pictures. Once again, he replied by asking how much money I had and I reacted to his request in a horrible, 4)patronizing manner. This 5)boomerang argument persisted for several minutes. I was completely unaware of the folly of trying to argue with an eight-year-old Polish boy, who was trying to communicate with me in my own language.
一个周日的早晨，我们在住的旅店附近一个别致的小餐馆里吃早餐。那是一个美好的早晨。从我们的窗望出去，我留意到一个穿着破旧的法国足球衫的小男孩哭得很伤心。我从没想过会再次见到他，但就在我们快要吃完时，那个小男孩又出现了，还问我身上有多少钱。他正在试图向我兜售一些蜡笔画。我坚决地告诉他，我不会告诉他我有多少钱，但我却问了一下他那些画的价钱。他又一次问我有多少钱。对于他的这个要求，我摆出一副可怕而盛气凌人的姿态回绝了。这场一来一回的争吵持续了几分钟。我完全没意识到，竭力和一个勉强用我的语言和我沟通的8岁波兰男孩争论是多么的傻。
I eventually asked him to show us his pictures and he then laid them all out on the breakfast table. Alex and I 6)perused the selection of innocently drawn whales, elephants and orange flowers. They were absolutely wonderful and we bought them all. Two of them now have a proud place on my bedroom wall. I still felt incredibly guilty for being so mean to him though, but afterwards we walked towards the train station for an altogether more 7)harrowing experience. We had intended to take the train to Oswiecim but on arriving at the station, we were approached by a 8)charismatic old man called Bob, who offered to drive us to Auschwitz in his taxi. It was an excellent choice.
最后我让他给我们看看他的画，他于是把所有的画铺在餐桌上。我和亚历克斯细看着那些用蜡笔天真地画下的鲸、象和橙花，画得棒极了，我们统统买了下来。其中的两幅如今正挂在我卧室墙壁上的显眼处。虽然我当时仍因为自己对他那么刻薄而觉得无比内疚，但后来，当我们走向火车站后，却展开了一场更令人痛彻心肺的体验。我们本来打算乘火车去奥斯威辛集中营，但我们一到火车站，就有一个叫做鲍勃的很有魅力的老男人走上前来，说可以开计程车载我们去奥斯威辛。事实证明我们的选择很对。
The journey to Oswiecim took about one hour and during an enjoyable ride through the Polish countryside, Bob gave us some vital background information. Soon enough we were standing outside the infamous Auschwitz gates. Our introduction to the death camp began by staring at the iron slogan “9)Arbeit Macht Frei.” We both privately 10)braced ourselves for the worst and tentatively walked towards Block Four. The exposed brown path 11)eerily led us to our first 12)barrack and it was probably the most affecting of them all. Only then did we fully appre-ciate the full horror of Auschwitz. Inside Block Four, there was an enormous glass wall that stored over 70 tons of 13)rotting grey hair, which had been gathered by the Nazis after they had shaved the heads of all the female prisoners inside the camp. The Nazis used the female hair for textile purposes back in Germany, where it was sickeningly transported across the border in order to make rugs and carpets.
前往奥斯威辛的车程约一个小时，在穿过波兰乡村的令人愉悦的旅途中，鲍勃给我们讲述了关于奥斯威辛集中营的一些重要的背景知识。很快，我们便站在了声名狼藉的奥斯威辛集中营的门外。进入这个死亡营地是从凝视那个铁牌标语“劳动带来自由”开始的。我们俩私下为即将目睹最可怕的东西而打气，步步小心地走向第四区。暴露于风雨中的褐色小径离奇地把我们引向我们要参观的第一个营，它大概是几个营中最震撼人心的了。到了那里，我们才完全领会到奥斯威辛集中营那彻头彻尾的恐怖。在第四区里有一个巨大的玻璃墙，里面储存了超过70吨正在腐烂的灰发，那都是由纳粹分子给集中营里的所有女囚剃发后收集而来的。纳粹分子恶心地把那些女性的头发跨境运往德国，用作垫子和地毯这些纺织品的原料。
I think what affected us most was not the 14)macabre literature or even the glass cage, but the stomach-curdling smell. It quite lite-rally smelt of death and we both instinctively 15)shuddered with grief. After viewing the first exhibit, there was no 16)respite from the misery that surrounded us as we went on to view the cavernous black prisons, gas chambers and the 17)poignant collection of toys, suitcases and children’s shoes.
我想，最令我们震撼的不是关于集中营的那些令人毛骨悚然的文字说明或是玻璃墙，而是那股让胃倒腾的气味。那确实是一股死亡的气味。我们俩本能地打了一阵寒颤，悲伤不已。看完了第一区的陈列品后，我们继而参观了似巨穴的漆黑的监狱、毒气室和玩具、手提箱、童鞋这些令人痛彻心肺的收藏品，痛苦时刻包围着我们，无休无止。
We eventually walked around all of the barracks and absorbed more harrowing facts from the information boards. We briefly examined the crumbling 18)crematorium before we met up with Bob again and he drove us three kilometres to Birkenau. It was an extremely warm day and the green birch trees gave us a glimmer of hope before we silently entered Birkenau. It was an absolutely enormous death factory, which had originally been split into male and female camps and thereafter split into ethnically divided cells. Birkenau must have been about the size of a thousand football pitches. Having no sense of direction, we found ourselves aimlessly wandering along the iron railway tracks and secretly imprisoned by the 19)barbed wire fence. There were birds singing in the trees, which once offered a temporary shelter for victims awaiting their fate inside the gas chambers. It was a horrifying and 20)cathartic experience, which had taken us both through the heart of darkness. While this might sound completely ridiculous, what we experienced at Auschwitz had nothing to do with flags, nations or even religion. It was the manifestation of sheer evil.
我们终于走完了所有的营，并从告示牌那里了解了更多让人痛心的事实。在再次和鲍勃碰头以前，我们简略地参观了一下逐渐变成废墟的火葬场，然后他把我们载到三公里以外的比克瑙集中营。那天非常暖和，绿叶满枝的桦树给了我们一丝慰藉，然后我们便默默进入了比克瑙。它简直就是一个巨大的死亡工厂，起初是被划分为男性和女性集中营，后来又按种族划分成单间。比克瑙集中营的面积大约有一千个足球场那么大。我们在那完全没有方向感，只是漫无目的地徘徊在铁轨上，并无形中被带刺的铁丝网监禁了。树上有鸟儿在唱歌，那歌声当年曾给那些等待着进入毒气室命运的受害者一份临时的心灵慰藉。那是一次恐怖而又涤荡心灵的经历，带领我们穿过黑暗的中心。也许这听起来十分荒谬：我们在奥斯威辛所经历的与旗帜、民族，甚至是宗教都无关，只是彻底的邪恶的展现。
We eventually found our way back to Bob’s taxi and 21)slumped in our seats. Both of us were left feeling physically and emotionally exhausted from the day’s events. I drifted off in the back seat, but I wasn’t thinking about the shaven-headed portraits or the 22)emaciated and tortured children. Instead, I couldn’t stop thinking about how rude I was to that little Polish boy earlier in the day. I had just walked through Auschwitz and the murderous fields of Birkenau, but as I recalled the look on that poor boy’s face, I felt sadder than I had felt all afternoon.
我们终于找到了鲍勃的车。瘫坐在座位上，我们只感觉那天的事让我们身心疲惫。我的思想渐渐飘离了后排的那个位置，但我不是在想那些囚犯被剃成光头的样子，或者那些瘦弱的被折磨的孩子，而是不停地想到那天早上自己对那个波兰男孩是多么的粗暴。我刚才走过奥斯威辛和比克瑙集中营里屠杀的场地，一整个下午都很伤心，但当我回忆起那个贫穷的男孩的脸，我更加悲痛了。
