At Auschwitz, I was walking down the gravel road toward the Crematoria 1 gas chamber when a man from the UK approached me with tears in his eyes. He asked if I would take some acorns with me. I was confused but agreed.
When I reached the crematorium, I saw oak trees where victims had waited for their turn in the gas chambers. The group included women, children, and older people who were too weak to work. These Jews didn’t know they would die in just minutes. I remember a little girl with a bow in her hair showing a photographer her stuffed animal. In the back, some men were having what would be their final prayer meeting.
Everywhere I stepped on the grass, I found white ash from the chimneys. I thought that some part of the victims might still be in the ash. Later, I learned that elements like phosphorus, oxygen, calcium, and even carbon from the victims remained in the ashes. These elements were absorbed by the oak trees for nourishment. In a way, some tiny part of the victims lived on in the acorns.
I decided that if I could bring some acorns out of the camp, I would be able to carry a small part of the victims out of there, even years later. I gathered a few acorns and put them in my pocket. I won’t say whether those acorns made it to the U.S., but I do have a beautiful oak tree in my front yard now. I smile at it every day on my way to work, sometimes inspecting its leaves and even talking to it softly.
I later found out that victims made tea from the acorns or ate them raw, which could be poisonous. One survivor said that if there had been grass, they would have eaten that too.
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