Ever heard of Synchronicity? As the name implies, it means when things happen at just right the right time to make something else happen. This week I have a good example of this.

 ahem...

When I was a small boy growing up in Germany, my parents decided we should go to see Auschwitz, the concentration camp where many, many people were murdered in WWII. Now forget all the politics and the rumours and the conspiracy theories for a minute, this place is important for many reasons, not least the fact that it was the first example of genocide in the western world. We should also remember that the german people are still embarrased and just as horrified as the rest of the world, by this place and those like it and also because of those who made it happen.

So here is where the story really begins. I was just a sprite at the time, of maybe four - this story is retold from my mothers' version. As we drove towards the place, a thick fog rolled over the entire town and surrounds; this sort of fog is common in winter in this area and was not surprising. My father had lost his bearings and was worried they had missed the turn-off to the entrance and so was gpoing to stop and ask directions (unusual for a man don;t you think?) My mother said not to worry she didn't think they had passed it, it was just ahead.

My father is not one to trust anyone else with anything so important as navigation and so he proceeded to drive on and look for someone to ask directions of.

At some point, my mother says she got a cold shiver and a wave of nausea and said to my father that he should turn off now. He couldn't see any road but thought my mother was going to be sick so he pulled over to the side of the road. 

As they stopped and got out of the car, the fog cleared for a few seconds and they saw right in front of them, the front gate to Auschwitz prison camp. My mother said that the whole time they were looking around there, she felt sick and afraid. keep in mind that this was 1964 and it wasn't generally speaking a place to visit. Few people even knew of the real attrocities that went on there as the records had been kept classified untill well after the Nuremberg trials. It has been left exactly as the Russian soldiers found it in 1945 and is still that way now.

Now here is the strange part. In October of last year, a very good friend of mine visited there and sent me a post card. On it she says: "There are no words powerful enough for this!"

I recieved the post card in the mail... this week, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners of Auschwitz.

How weird is that? That's synchronicity. Any thoughts?